Welcome to the Monster Club!
by The Super Twins
Summary: Len's the school flirt, Miku's the new girl. Normal, right? Wrong! Len is a proud member of the Monster Club, an after school club only Monsters attend. Robots, aliens, vampires, magic - they're all there. Miku is capable of slowing time. Naturally she gets an invite to join by none other than Len himself. Naturally she turns him down! Who wants to spend time with him anyway?
1. Welcome to the Monster Club

Chapter 01: Welcome to the Monster Club ~ Len

"Isn't Miki hot?"

"I guess."

"'I guess'? Be a little more enthusiastic."

I raise an eyebrow as I look at my best friend, Piko. "You want me to be enthusiastic?"

Piko smirks. "Of course I do. Go on, say it. Miki is hot."

"Miki _is_ hot," I say in reply, leaning back against my chair with my hands behind my head. "But _I'm_ not interested."

"And I'm glad you're not, because I'd kill you if you were."

I snort. "With what? Your USB tail?"

"No, with my chainsaw hand."

"You don't have a chainsaw hand."

"I'll get one then."

We both sit in silence, leaning back against our chairs. We're both watching Miki intently, although she's completely oblivious to it. Probably because she's currently focussing on balancing a pile of books in one hand whilst talking to her two sisters.

Iroha, the youngest of the three, is holding her overly sized red hat in her hands. She rarely takes it off, but that's because she has cat ears, and a tail, obviously. Tiny little five centimetres tall Lapis the fairy is sitting on Iroha's pink haired head, like she always does. She generally hides under the cat girl's hat, but for now she's free to roam around.

Miki's other sibling is Yukari, the purple haired, rabbit eared, middle sister. She generally hides her own ears under the hood of her hoodie, which ironically has rabbit ears too.

Miki herself is not a cat girl, or a moon rabbit (yes, Yukari comes from the moon) but in fact what seems to be a normal looking girl with ginger hair, hence why I'm not attracted to her because I'm not fond of gingers, but Piko loves them. Miki is small, not very developed, but that's not exactly her fault. She's meant to look androgynous, and quite child like, and pervy, too. Pervy Miki we call her.

"She's a robot," I kindly decide to remind my friend.

"Bummer, right?" Piko says.

"You're a robot," I then remind him.

"I know. Double bummer." Piko sighs yet again. "I could still kiss her."

"But you couldn't do 'it'." I smirk at him.

Piko just rolls his pretty green and blue eyes. "'Course not. She has no sexual organs."

"Do you?" I counter.

"You know I don't. You've seen me naked." Idly he starts to twirl his USB tail.

"I know, that's why you're technically a girl."

"I'm technically nothing, sexless, if that's what you want to call it." Piko clicks his fake tongue. "It's proper name is intersex."

"Then why do I refer to you as 'he'?"

The end of Piko's tail smacks me right in the face, and I'm pretty damn sure it was deliberate. "Because that's the gender I associate with, how many times do I have to say it?"

"Many, because I know it annoys you." Piko's tail smacks me in the face again and I rub my cheek. Man, USBs could hurt.

"At least being kicked in the bollocks doesn't hurt," he says with a taunting grin.

I groan, and run a hand through my spiky blonde hair. He knows full well Rin had directed a well aimed kick at my lower regions only a week before, and boy had it hurt. I was on the floor in tears, and I hadn't even done anything to deserve it. Okay, so maybe I'd eaten her lunch, ruined her homework, and got her put into detention; but that was payback for when she put me in detention by stealing MY homework because she hadn't done hers, and because she had left her lunch behind and I was hungry. Sibling love, it could be brilliant sometimes.

"Len, Piko, feet off the table," Big Al says as he strides behind us, giving us a light smack on the head at the same time. I'm pretty sure that it's against the school rules for a teacher to touch a student, even a light smack, but neither Piko nor I care, because we were a family here (quite literally in a sense too).

We call Al 'Big Al' for one reason and one reason only. He is big. Very big. Fifty metres high big. Okay, so maybe not fifty metres, but he's definitely bordering on seven foot. Man, that guy is a giant. I feel sorry for Oliver, who takes after his mother's short genes and will never be a giant like his father.

Speaking of Oliver, he is currently on the other side of the room, looking as innocent and as radiant as ever, talking to his mother. Oliver's quite short, in comparison to other guys, but clearly that rises his cuteness factor and pretty much every girl obsesses over him. I mean, who wouldn't? He looks young, is super innocent, has a strong British accent and an eyepatch in which he strings tall tales about battling pirates and sailing the seven seas, clearly lies but lies that fascinate everyone in the correct way. If I ever came up with witty tales of adventures I'd been on I'd instantly be labeled a cocky prick, but I already am labeled a cocky prick so it wouldn't really make much difference. Besides the girls love me for it anyway, possibly due to the fact I also have a British accent.

Oliver's mother, and Big Al's wife, is another teacher at the school. We all call her Sweet Ann because of her sweet and kindly nature and how she's there for everyone whenever they need her, but also because she had a quite noticeable sweet tooth. Not that she admits it, but we all notice her scoffing down a cake or two nearly every day. Oliver has inherited her blonde hair, her paler skin, her more feminine features, and her sweet personality. He has inherited practically zip from his father, the only thing being his strangely yellow eyes. Big Al is tall, dark haired (although already going white) and a muscular man. Neither Oliver nor Sweet Ann have any muscles at all, yet they are both still extremely strong, being literal monsters and all.

The only odd thing about the family is Big Al is American, Sweet Ann is Australian and they have a British son. There was a story behind it, something involving Britain, alcohol and detached body parts, with the aid of my psycho mother, but like I said there is a story behind it, but it's not my story, so I'm not going to take my time to explain it. There, I said it.

As Sweet Ann scratches at the stitches on her neck (which were usually covered up by a choker) and Big Al itches the stitches on his forehead (apparently from a freak accident, yet we all knew the truth) I turn back to Piko as the two of us put our feet back on the table.

"Dude, if you like Miki so much just ask her out," I say.

"I can't. Seriously, do you know how difficult that is?" Piko frowns at me, most certainly not amused.

"Bloody hell, Piko, all you have to do is go up to her and say 'go out with me'."

"Well that's easy for you, all the girls like you," he whines. "No one ever goes out with me."

"Because you look like a girl."

"That's not my fault!"

"What's not you're fault?"

Suddenly we both find our necks being crushed as we are forced into a strangling hug. Instantly I push our attacker off of us and whirl around to give them my coldest glare.

"How many times do I have to tell you not to do that, Rin?" I ask, attempting my best at sounding annoyed.

"Many times and I'd forget every time," Rin replies with a grin.

I pull an even more unimpressed expression. "It's not funny, and it hurts you know. Twin sister or not, you can't just attack us all the time."

Rin's grin falters slightly, but you can still tell there is masses of energy stormed up in her. Rin is my twin, slightly older than me, which she decides to use as an excuse to boss me around despite the fact she is as immature as hell. For non-identical twins we certainly look pretty similar, most people citing I look like a girl. That had died down though after I'd bitten someone (and obviously gotten suspended as a result) for irritating me way too much. Strangely I have longer hair, which I tie back in a scruffy ponytail, compared to Rin's super stylish short bob (despite the fact she's a tomboy) but I think guys are sexy with long hair. (Yes, I am a bit narcissistic, but isn't everyone?)

Rin finally purses her lips. "Okay, I'm sorry. Can I know what's not whoever's fault now?"

"No, you may not. It's not your business."

"Len," Piko says disapprovingly. "Don't be so mean."

With a grunt I reluctantly look at Rin and said, "Piko looks like a girl."

"Well he could simply change to look like a guy," Rin suggests.

"How?"

"He's a robot."

"It would kinda look suspicious," Piko points out.

Rin shrugs. "Doesn't matter."

"Look, Rin, can you please just not bother us?" I say with a sigh, tugging on a few loose strands of my hair. "Go annoy someone else for a change."

Rin opens her mouth to say something, snaps her mouth shut, then turns and stalks away over to Gumi and Sonika, whom are chatting away excitedly. They politely say hi to her, but other than that they act like she doesn't exist.

"Len, why are you always so mean to her?" Piko asks.

"I'm not. I love her really, but she's just so clingy," I reply.

And it was true. Rin is my twin, and to her that seems to be the only thing that matters. If I was going to be honest, I would say she is pretty darn crap at making friends. She bounces up and down, butts into conversations, expects everyone to listen to her, speaks too fast, is a bit too random and just generally annoying. She can't make friends so she relies on me to be there for her. Of course if she really needed me I would be there for her in a split second, but I can't be there every bloody second. I'm constantly getting irritated with how clingy she is, because I have friends and a social life I can't abandon all because she can't learn how to be a little more sane.

"All she needs is a friend," I say glumly. "Someone to calm her down."

Piko nods. "Unfortunately we haven't met the right person yet."

We are silent for a second before I suddenly pipe up with, "So, what are you gonna do about Miki?"

Piko groans. "Nothing, okay?"

I just grin back. "You can try your latest pick up line on me if you want."

Piko ponders this then leans over and whispers, "I'll tell you later, I promise it's a good one."

With a snort I just nod. Sure thing, it was definitely going to be a good one. Like, when did he ever have a bad pick up line? Pretty much all the time. That was the main reason girls wouldn't go out with him.

"You two boys look like you're having fun," Kaito says as he comes over, giving us a suggestive wink. The two of us burst into unnecessary hysteric fits, and I notice how Rin was staring jealously.

"We're having lots of fun," I say as I put my arm around Piko's shoulder. "Aren't we, Piko darling?"

"Sure thing, Len honey."

Kaito chuckles to himself. He's quite a tall lad, and a couple years our senior, with shockingly dark blue hair. As he chuckles we can see his fangs, but thankfully they aren't covered in blood. His cheeks do look a bit red though, a clear sign he's spent too much time out in the sun again, most likely ogling at Meiko (but with a rack like hers, who wouldn't ogle at her?)

"You two make me laugh, you really do," he says as leans against the table. "But Mister Piko, I thought you had your eye one someone else."

Piko holds a finger to his lips to tell Kaito to silence. Kaito does just that, but he still continues to chuckle, taking out an opaque bottle and taking a swing from it. He also knows about Piko's mega-crush on Pervy Miki. As he lowers the bottle we notice his lips are now red, so he quickly wipes them with the back of his hand. There is a reason he has an opaque bottle and not a transparent one.

"All right, kiddos. Times up, let's get going," Big Al announces.

I look up at the clock and realise it is already four. Man, time has gone quickly this meeting.

Well I say meeting but it's not really a meeting. We're supposedly an after school club, not that we do anything, but we technically still count as a club. We use Big Al's classroom and after school every Wednesday we all hang out. So it's not a club, more like a meeting, but it isn't. 'Social gathering' would be the correct term.

But what's the point of having a club where you don't do anything? I can hear you asking. Well my reply is: There is no point. This is a club for so called 'special people'. No I don't mean special needs or idiots (although special needs kids are welcomed with wide open arms. Idiots however are not), by 'special' I truly mean special.

Are you a monster? Are you from another planet? Do you have crazy psycho powers or are you just mutated and kinda different from normal people? If you are then this is the place for you.

Welcome to the Monster Club.

**~Author's Notes~**

**Hello there! For anyone that's interested this is a joint fanfiction between Rolling-Chan and me. I'm writing Len's POV, she's writing Miku's, and since we're of different nationalities so are they (AKA Len's British and Miku's American). A lot of effort and planning has gone into this, so we both hope you enjoy this story! Updates will be every Wednesday, same day as the Monster Club takes place :)**

**~Kate (and Rolling-Chan)**

**(PS Disclaimer: We do not own Vocaloid, or monsters for that matter, we only own the story line and out own characterisations)**


	2. I'd Like Change More

Chapter 02: I'd Like Change More if it Wasn't so Sudden ~ Miku

The beeping of my alarm clock is what snaps me out of my dreams, throwing me back into reality. Before I open my eyes I reach out and turn the alarm off. With a loud moan, I roll on my back and stretch my arms to the ceiling, the muscles in the tips of my fingers feeling the pulling sensation as well. I open my ocean blue eyes, blink a few times until they adjust to the light, and check the time.

**7:25**

Classes start in five minutes, I missed the bus, and I live a fifteen minute walk from the school. Not to mention I'm still in my pajama pants and tank top. Yeah, I could have slept a little longer.

I roll out of bed, literally, and fall face first on the floor. I use my arms to push myself onto my knees, and from there I get to my feet. With as much enthusiasm as door nail I trug out of my bedroom and stalk down the stairs.

Mom, her body frozen like a statue's, is washing the dishes. Her mint hair is pulled into a low ponytail, and her glasses sit on the edge of her nose as if they are going to fall off. Not wanting her new and fairly expensive glasses to get a bath with the frying pan, I push them to the top of Mom's nose.

Still casually strolling, I take the box toaster waffles out of the freezer and pop two into the toaster. Once that task is complete I head back to my room to change into something suitable for school.

I hum a catchy tune as I put on a pair of dark blue skinny jeans and a plain green top. Next I slip on my blue leopard print converse and take my time in tying the black laces. Lastly I brush my messy teal hair and tied it up into high pigtails. Given how my hair still manages to reach my knees despite being worn up I should perhaps consider getting it cut. Once the task of dressing is complete I sling my already packed book bag over my shoulder and exit my room. I bounce down the stairs and take a seat on the kitchen counter before time goes back to normal.

Mom's first reaction when she sees me out of the corner of her eye is to jump three feet into the air and yell a word she would whoop me for saying. I start chuckling at the sight. This never grows old.

"Miku," Mom begins, a hand clutching the fabric over her heart, "how many times have I told you to stop slowing time?"

"I dunno," I tip my head to the left. "Eighty-six times? Eighty-seven?"

"Very funny," Mom mumbles as she returns to the dishes.

"That's why I'm laughing," the smile does not fade from my face. Mom can only sigh and shake her head at me. I jump off the counter and open the cupboard on the other side of the kitchen. I take out a purple plate and set it on the counter before heading to the pantry to retrieve the syrup. After I set the syrup down I head to the fridge and dig out the butter and orange juice. Such a shame my ability can't spread to making the toaster heat my food up faster. If I could I would be unstoppable.

"You're going to be late for school," Mom feels the need to say.

"I have four minutes and eleven point nine six seconds," I shrug. "I have all the time I need."

"Miku, you can't spend your whole life using your ability as a crutch."

"I'm not using Time Manipulation as a crutch," I roll my eyes. "You know I usually wake up early and prepare for school like a normal person, but I stayed up late last night and needed those extra ninety minutes of sleep." If only I could manipulate time in my sleep, then I would have an extra eight hours in my day. That would be wonderful.

"You really had ought to stop staying up late reading," my mom sighs. "Unless its a textbook, you're wasting your time."

"I don't see why you don't like my choice of literature," I say as my waffles pop up. I snatch the waffles from the toaster and throw them on the plate. Buttering my breakfast I continue, "I get good grades so I don't really see why any of it matters." Mom just gives me another one of her I-don't-know-what-I'm-going-to-do-with-you looks. Suddenly I think of something that I'm ashamed hasn't passed my mind until now. "Where's Dad?" I ask.

"Just missed him," Mom answers. "Left five minutes ago. There's been . . . trouble at work. Your father hopes to arrive early and have a conversation with his boss about it."

"Is it that bad?" I ask as I shove a mouth full of waffles covered in butter and bathed with syrup into my mouth.

After Mom scolds me about talking with my mouth full she answers, "Could be worse. I know I shouldn't be telling you this . . . ," Mom trails off as if she's thinking she should shut up about whatever it is I'm not supposed to know. To my surprise she continues. "Your father is going to see if he can get moved to another company."

That was the last thing I heard before I slowed down time to finish eating and run to school. Mom stood stone still the entire time.

#

"So you might be moving?"

"Yep."

"You don't seem upset."

"Maybe my emotions haven't gotten the memo," I shrug as I pop another Pringle in my mouth. For lunch period I sit with Cul, my closest friend in the school, outside by the track course. I take a large bite of an egg salad sandwich as I watch the track team circle the field. "Do you have flying practice today?" I ask my red headed friend.

Cul closes her copy of _Crown of Midnight_ and answers, "Yeah, but it might get cancelled if it rains again." Cul is a dragon who recently developed the ability to completely change her form, and now that she has wings Cul has signed up for a flying course taught by another dragon. If she could fly without crashing into everything she comes by she would hands down be the coolest person ever.

"Have you gotten any better?"

"Not much."

With nothing else to add, I swallow the last of my sandwich and move on to devouring the rest of the sour cream and onion Pringles while Cul sticks her nose back in her novel. I'm barely finished when I hear a sneeze followed by a sudden burst of light.

Looking to my right I find Cul staring at the remains of the book like a five-year-old trying to find where two pieces in a puzzle go. With a deep sigh, Cul crosses her arms over her knees and mumbles. "Dammit."

"At least it wasn't another library book," I offer as I search around to make sure no one saw Cul setting fire to the book. Of all the ways our kind could be exposed I don't think anyone would vote a sixteen-year-old girl snotting fire.

"Imagine having to explain returning a well-done _Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire_ to the librarian," Cul shakes her head.

After making certain no one saw Cul sneeze, I return my attention to her and whisper, "You need to get that under control. What would happen if someone saw you?"

"You sound like my mom," Cul rolls her eyes though I can tell she is taking this seriously. "Don't worry, I'm getting the hang of fire breathing. Granted it's not going as well as anyone would hope, but I'm trying."

"Okay, now hide the remains of Celaena Sardothien so we can go to our next class," I say as I put away my garbage. I crumple up the brown bag before successfully tossing it into the nearest trash can.

"I spent good money on that book," Cul pouts as she shoves the burnt copy in her backpack. "The least you can do is be somewhat sympathetic."

"Fine," I sigh. "I'm sorry you snot fire and destroy everything by your sneeze."

"Oh screw you," Cul snorts as she playfully pushes past me as she heads to class.

"You know you love me," I laugh as I jog after her.

"I know I love you," Cul admits, "I just don't know _why_ I love you."

"Cul!" I call after her. When she turns to face me I raise my middle finger in the air.

"You are so immature," Cul smiles as she continues her way to our classroom.

"Growing up is boring. I'm not participating," I respond with a smile as I follow after her.

#

It has been three weeks since Mom spilled the news. My bags are mostly packed, but only because there are some necessities I'll need within the next twelve hours. My room is basically bare at this point, and by tomorrow morning no indication that I ever lived here will remain.

"Weird how you're moving to the same city my brother's going to college," Cul says as she helps me stack boxes. In a few minutes Dad's going to come up and help me carry my stuff to the moving van, and for some reason Cul decided to spend my last night in town helping me pack. It's like she secretly can't wait for me to leave, but when I teased her on it she began apologizing and promising me that was not what she meant to imply.

"Maybe I'll visit him," I suggest, taping the last box to handle my books. As this box held my paperbacks I threw in the excess bubble wrap in hopes to prevent any of them from being damaged during the six hour ride. "I always liked Luc, and he always treated me like a sister so I think he'd be happy to see me."

"You always were an extended member of the family," Cul says as she takes some clothes out of my closet and hangs them on her bright red and scaley tail. I wish I had a portable clothing rake like that. Holding up a cream sweater with black kittens on it, Cul asks, "May I have this? You never wear it."

"Take it," I answer. "I won't miss it at all."

Cul throws the sweater next to her book bag before proceeding to dump the clothes that were hanging on her tail onto my bed. She sits on one side of the pile while I take a spot on the other. We fold clothes in silence for a minute before Cul says, "I'm really going to miss you."

"Same," I sigh. "We leave first thing in the morning, I'll have a day to unpack, and then I'm off to a new school the next day. Talk about sudden changes."

"I expect you to tell me everything about your new school," Cul says, folding my gray crop sweater. "Except boring details. No boring things."

"I won't speak a word of them," I promise. "I'll just type them out and E-mail them to you."

"I don't check my E-mail anyway," Cul snorts as she uses her foot to drag an empty box closer to us. She begins tossing my clothes in there like nobody's business. "I'll visit during spring break," she promises.

"That's three months away," I point out. I frown at how careless Cul is with my clothes, but since there's not much I can do I just follow her lead.

"I'll still be alive then," Cul tosses the rest of my clothes into the box in such a way folding them had been a complete waste of time.

Not knowing what to do, I force the clothes to fit before sealing the box closed. "Guess we'd better start taking these to the truck," I sigh as I place two boxes on top of the one holding the clothes Cul and I just packed. I pick them up while Cul manages the heavier ones. Dad joins us halfway through, and in less than twenty minutes my belongings no longer reside in the room that was once mine.

"I always knew I was going to move out one day," I muse as I look over the empty room, "but when I imagined it I was two years older and actually excited."

"You will have a great time at your new school," Cul smiles as she gathers her belongings. "Call me when you get the chance."

"Or I can just talk to you the whole six hour trip," I smirk.

"Are you ever going to change?"

"Nah, that'd be no fun."

"I'd love to see your first day at the new school," Cul snorts as she exits my bedroom.

"I already have it all planned out," I follow behind her, preferring to spend these last few moments with my closest friend and not in my empty bedroom. "I will arrive early to sign in, be polite to all the teachers, and get everyone wondering about the mysterious new girl."

"If I know you," Cul begins, "you'll be late on the first day and having a stress attack over every little mistake you make."

"Cul," I roll my eyes as I bounce down the stairs, "don't you have any faith in me?"

#

"Miku, wake up," I hear my dad call, pulling me out of my precious dreams. A common occurrence in my household.

"Let me sleep," I moan while rolling over in hopes of returning to the lovely dream I was having. "I have my alarm set, there's no need to wake me for school." I yawn a yawn so gigantic I feel my mouth stretching. "I won't be late."

"Uh, Miku," my dad says slowly, "it's 7:50. School starts in ten minutes."

I bolt upright so fast I go blind. Thanks to my temporary blindness I have to feel around for my digital clock, but my sight returns when I lift the device to my face. "No way!" I gasp. "Why is it this time?!" I know I set my alarm last night, so why didn't it go off? "I set it for 6:30 _P.M._!" I cry at the realization.

"At least you have insurance," Dad raises an eyebrow, and I immediately understand what he's telling me.

Unlike Mom, Dad doesn't mind if I use my ability. His grandfather was a Time Manipulator just like myself, except instead of slowing time he made it go by faster. Time Manipulation is a very rare gift to inherit, making me the only member of my family to be gifted. Unlike dragons and werewolves and witches and the like, no child of a Time Manipulator is guaranteed to possess the ability as well, even if both parents could mess with time. Both of my parents are Norms as a result, but they don't seem to have a problem with a having a freak for a daughter.

I jump to my feet and give Dad a kiss on the cheek. "I promise this won't happen again," I vow.

"Have a great day at school, Sweetheart," Dad says, and then he freezes.

Snatching up whatever is at the top of my pile of clothes, I run to the bathroom and change into what ended up being black leggings, a white mid-thigh length skirt, a pink belt, and a plain yellow shirt. I use cute pink ribbon bows to tie my hair into pigtails and slip into my black converse before bolting down the stairs to the new kitchen for breakfast. After gulping down half a serving of cereal I return time normal long enough to kiss Mom on the cheek and tell her I'm off . . . and give her a massive heart attack in the process.

I'm slinging my backpack over my shoulder as I shoot out the door. I know since technically time isn't moving normally I could walk and sing in a carefree manner, but I'm too stressed to actually consider the option. I was supposed to arrive at 7:45, meaning I'm already five minutes late. Besides, I can't actually stop time anyway, so even if the people around me seem to be frozen they're still moving around and such. If I walk that could make me half a minute later, and I really don't want that.

When the school comes into sight I sprint through the doors and blaze down the hallway, careful of the few students still making their way to class. The tiny clicking sound tells me one of me shoes is untied, the laces flying freely as the aglets smack against the marble floors. Geez, I'm a busy woman, I don't have the time to stop to tie my shoe!

I enter a hall that's nearly empty. There are two girls - no wait, those are guys - on the left side of the hall. The one closest to me has on a brown leather jacket, black jeans, and a white T-shirt, and his blond hair is tied up in a ponytail. Geez, does he seriously think the ponytail makes him look sexy or something?

The one furthest from me has silver hair and mismatched eyes. He's wearing a black shirt and light blue jeans. Silver haired dude has his mouth open and his arms outstretched like he's telling the blond guy something, and based on Blondie's grin it must be something either funny or stupid. Maybe both.

I continue running forward even though I didn't slow too much while observing the boys. I'm passing them when I stumble, and I have no doubt it's because of my stupid untied shoe laces. That's when it happens.

My shoulder connects with the blond boy's, and in that instant time slows for him as well.

Snapping my head to my left, I see the boy stare at me with his widening cerulean eyes. His lips seem to begin to form some colorful word, but before he can get the sound out our shoulders no longer touch. It was only what felt like a second, but I'm afraid it was enough to set him off.

My own language gets colorful as I run away from the re-frozen boy. To him I was there one second and gone the next, even if his friend wasn't at all affected and will continue on as if nothing ever happened. I don't know if it's enough, but I'm going to be in serious trouble if he noticed me.

Of course odds are he didn't even get the chance to take me in. It's not as if he memorized my face in a single second, right? He probably didn't even notice my hair color, something that tends to attract a lot of attention. Eh, I'm stressing over nothing. There's absolutely no way on Earth that boy noticed me.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong>

**Hi! *waves with both hands* Hello! Hey! *continues waving* Stop that. *stops waving***

**This is Rolling-Chan, but you all can call me Ray. :) As dear Kate already mentioned, this fanfic is a collaboration between her and I. For a really long time I have wanted to write a collab with someone, so having this opportunity to work and write with the most amazing person ever is like a dream come true. We hope you guys enjoy this fanfic just as much as we do! :D**

**-Ray, AKA Rolling-Chan (and Kate)**


	3. Run in With a Time Manipulator

Chapter 03: Run in With a Time Manipulator ~ Len

Rin, Oliver and I are the only ones in the house. Big Al and Sweet Ann had left to go to school already as they are teachers so they need to be there early. This means Rin, Oliver and I are alone, a common occurrence in the morning.

Rin is currently in the shower. She's pretty lazy for a girl, and I have to literally drag her arse out of her bed and force her to get ready. Oliver is eating breakfast, and I'm keeping my eye on the clock. We always leave to go to school at 7:40, which gives us a good twenty minutes to get there. Fifteen minutes is straining it. Ten minutes means we'd be late.

"What's the time?" Oliver asks me as he gulps down a spoonful of cereal.

"Seven thirty three," I reply. That means Rin has seven (twelve if she wants to push it) minutes to get washed, dressed, have breakfast and pack her bags. This definitely means she was going to go to school with damp hair yet again.

"Rin!" I yell up the stairs. "You're gonna be late, hurry the bloody hell up!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" She yells as she comes thundering down the stairs dressed in a mismatched outfit of an oversized t-shirt, light blue hoodie, hot pants I couldn't see thanks to her t-shirt, and fluffy socks. Fluffy? It was quite warm outside.

"Do you think I'll have time to dry my hair?" she asks as she run's past me and into the kitchen.

"It's seven thirty six," I tell her and she swears loudly.

"I have four minutes!" She cries and she runs back out of the kitchen.

"You can't even brush your hair in that time," I say drably as she runs to the downstairs bathroom to find a brush. "Just get something to eat."

"You're right," she says and she runs straight back to the kitchen.

Suddenly my mobile phone bleats. I pull it out of my pocket and check my notifications to see I've gotten a text from Piko.

Piko: Come over ASAP I'm dying

Since dying was a code word for not working I sigh and text back.

Me: I'll be there ASAP don't you worry

"Gotta go guys," I call out as I pick up my bad that has been sitting at my feet. "Piko needs me."

"But what about walking to school together?" Rin asks, poking her head through the doorway to the kitchen.

"Yeah, but this is probably an emergency. I'll see you at break." With that I scoop my keys off the sideboard and run out the front door.

#

I open Piko's front door with my own set of keys that he has given me (yes, I can break into his flat if I want).

"Piko, we're going to be late to school, stop being bloody slow and hurry the hell up!" I yell as I first head into his living room to check if he's there.

Piko, the lucky bastard, lives on his own. It's not like he had anyone to live with. I'm currently standing in his flat waiting for him to get ready. School starts soon and we need to get going.

It's not like his living room is a bad place to hang. It has a nice wall scroll of Cowboy Bebop hanging over the sofa, a nice but not expensive TV, and piles of various games consoles. An ideal room for a guy his 'age'.

"Sorry, I'm having robot issues," he yells back grimly. "You better go to school without me!"

"Not happening!" I yell and I storm out of the living room and over to his bedroom, throwing the door wide open, hard enough that it nearly came off it's hinges. Only nearly though, I've learnt not to break the doors.

Piko's sitting helplessly on his bed, shirtless and only in pyjamas bottoms, with many, many wires plugged into him. There are a couple of machines behind him, which are designed to keep him working. It's when he was shirtless you could really see how much he looked like a girl, albeit a flat chested one, but he has absolutely no abs what so ever. It he had boobs, even the slightest amount, he could have classed as a girl.

Piko's room is messy, as per typical teenage boy. Especially since he lives alone and no one can tidy up for him, he is pretty helpless. I'm constantly at his flat helping with various housework. I actually spend more time at his place than at mine, but then again he has no parental guardians so we can do whatever we want. He has a few posters on his walls, mainly Warcraft and Marvel, with some pin up ones of Tifa, arguably one of the best females in gaming.

"As soon as I pull the charger out of my arm it goes completely limp," he says as he looks up at me, holding said arm high above his head.

I walk over to him and don't even need to communicate to him in anyway about what I'm planning to do, considering we are best friends and all so we both know exactly what the other was thinking pretty much all the time. So if I was daydreaming about dirty thoughts, he knew.

Quickly and smoothly I unplug the charger from his arm. As soon as that has happened his arm collapses lifelessly by his side.

"Are you sure you can't move it?" I ask as I jab at his lifeless limb. It actually feels quite squishy, an attempt to make him feel more like a human. Of course when we get the chance we always tell other monsters it's real human flesh. Never passed on a brilliant opportunity like that.

"I'm trying desperately and it's not working," he says flatly.

Just to see if he's telling the truth or not I pick up his arm and shake it. The way it flings around lifelessly (and rattles slightly, which is slightly worrying) definitely confirms Piko's arm has indeed stopped working.

Great.

I drop his arm and start to tap my foot again, pondering what on earth one was to do to fix a robots arm.

"Do something," Piko says irritably. "I don't have all day."

"All right, all right, hold your bloody horses, you bleeding prat, I'm working on it." I scramble over his bed to check out the machines behind him.

"I love it when you speak British, it is very sexy," he says sultrily.

"I hate it when you speak," I murmur as I stare at the screen in front of me. "If that was a pick up line, it was crap."

"It was most definitely not a pick up line," he replies.

"Sure not. And that attempt at a British accent was also crap. " I tap a few things on the screen. "Can you feel anything now?"

"No, you didn't plug my arm back in."

With a groan I turn around and kick him in the back, hard enough so he could feel it but light enough it wouldn't hurt. "Put it in yourself. Your other arm still works."

Piko grunts and pluggs his arm in. "Okay work your magic."

And indeed I worked it. "What about now?"

"Nope, nothing."

I groan and collapse on the bed. "Seriously, dude, you're the robot, you're supposed to know how to fix yourself. Why do you rely on your non-robot friend to fix you?"

"You're British, you're supposed to be smart."

I snort. "That's only because Americans are stupid."

Suddenly I feel a very familiar USB collide with my cheek. "Be wary, my tail still works, it's only my arm that doesn't."

I groan again. "Can't you just, I don't know, put your arm in a sling?"

"This is my left arm we're talking about, I write with my left arm!"

"You're ambidextrous, as if it matters," I reply as I pull myself up and look back down at the screen. "Besides, your right hand is your more dominant one."

"That's besides the point!"

"No it's not." I tap a few more bits on the screen. "What about now?"

"Oh, I feel something tingling."

"Try it out then," I demand and he holds his arm up in the air. Cautiously I pull the charging lead out, and voila, his arm remains in the air.

"Success!" He cheers, and he narrowly avoids hitting me in the face yet again with his demonic tail.

I sigh with relief and climb off the bed and to my feet. "Come on, nancy boy, get dressed. We have lessons to get to."

Piko scrambles to his feet and immediately heads to his wardrobe. "Time?"

"Seven forty seven," I say calmly.

Piko isn't so calm. He swears and quickly strips, not caring that I'm in the room because he knows I'm used to it, and pulls on the the first things he grabs from his wardrobe, things that aren't even appropriate for the weather. Not that it mattered to him, being a robot and all.

"We're gonna be late," he mutters grumpily as he ran out of his room and I stroll out after him.

"Piko, our teachers love us, they won't care," I say coolly.

He pauses. "...Oh yeah. I guess we'll be fine."

With that remark said and done he actually goes to go brush his hair so he won't look like a right state and cramp my style, and in a couple of minutes he's done, bag and all.

"And at seven fifty they finally leave," I narrate as we finally left, Piko locking his door behind him.

#

It doesn't take long to get to school. We do end up being five minutes late, but what does that matter? The corridor we're currently heading down is completely empty, save us two, and we simply stroll along. If we're already late there's really no point in rushing, because it's not going to magically make us on time.

"We need to get that machine of yours properly checked if it's gonna make you late like this all the time, nancy boy" I say as we strolled down.

"What if I just need to get my arm checked out?" he asks. "What if that's the problem?"

"Well, I have suspicions it's probably something to do with both," I reply. "So get them both checked out to stay on the safe side. Maybe ask them to give you some balls while you're at it."

"Yeah, but what if it's a sign that my body is failing?" Piko asks, but he laughs at the same time so I know he doesn't really care.

"Then thank heavens because I've always wanted a new best friend," I say in reply.

And that's when it happens.

Suddenly someone's touching my shoulder. The first thing I notice is Piko has frozen, and as I turn around to see who's touching me I found myself staring back into the startled blue eyes of a teal haired girl, a girl who hadn't been there before.

"What the f-" I start to yell, but then suddenly she's gone, and suddenly I'm lying on the floor with a banging headache.

"Maybe you should get your legs checked out if you're just going to fall over like that," Piko says as he peers over me.

"Ha ha, very funny." I grunt as he pulls me to my feet. "Did you see that?"

"See what?" He frowns.

"See the girl."

"Girl?" He frowns even more.

"Yeah, the teal haired one."

I don't think he can frown more than he already is. "What teal haired one?"

"The teal haired one that literally just appeared one second and disappeared the next."

Piko shakes his head. "You must be day dreaming."

"I wasn't, she really was there, and you were all frozen-" I pause and my eyes widen. "Frozen!"

"A terrible movie," Piko says. "But continue."

"No, I'm not talking about the movie," I say. "I'm talking about what she did. You were frozen, you were moving slower than that girl and me, meaning she was either moving very fast or you were-"

"Moving slowly." Piko finishes my sentence for me as his own eyes widen. "You know what that means?"

"Nancy boy, I know exactly what that means. I just had a run in with our first Time Manipulator."

"But they're so rare!" He gasps as we continue down the corridor. "I didn't ever think I'd ever see one!"

I grin. "I think this school year just got exciting."

Just as we approaches our class he turns to me. "How's your head?"

I snort in reply and head inside.

**~Author's Notes~**

**So Len and Miku finally meet (kinda). And just so no one feels offended, I do not agree that Frozen is a terrible movie. Well, it is, but I love it to pieces anyway.**

**~Kate (and Ray)**


	4. Apparently I'm Interesting

Chapter 4: Apparently I'm Interesting To Look At ~ Miku

After I talk to the principal - and apologize again and again for my tardiness - I drag along to homeroom, my first period. I'm supposed to wait until the teacher comes in to call role so that I can turn in my sign in sheet. After that the rest of the period is free for the students to do whatever they please, though reading and doing the homework that was supposed to be finished the night before is heavily encouraged.

I'm about to enter the room when someone turns the sharp corner by the door and gives me a mini heart attack._ "Eeeee!"_ The weird noise comes out of my mouth as I back away. The person stops and glares at me, giving me the chance to observe her.

She's tall. I mean really tall. This girl stands a head over me, and I'm 5'5. She's wearing a black shirt with wrist length sleeves and faded blue jeans, but her most interesting feature is her face. This girl's face is so white she appears almost ghostly, the dark shadow around her eyes adding to the creepy factor. Her raven hair is tied into a knot on the back of her head, and her eyes look like black pits.

For a moment I'm afraid she's going to snap at me for staring at her, but instead she says in a kind tone, "Be careful when entering and exiting the room, and be especially careful when turning the corner. This is a rather famous spot for students to literally run into each other." Without waiting for me to respond the mysterious girl turns on her heel and enters the room. I gape after her a moment too long before I also enter the room.

Students buzz all over the room, chatting away with the latest school gossip and talking about what they did over the weekend. My heart sinks as I find no empty seats. Did the principal accidentally tell me to go to a class that has no room for any more students?

I'm about to assume so when I notice one of the dual desks by the wall only half occupied. Sitting in the chair closest to the window is a girl with damp blonde hair clipped out of her face. Unlike the other teens, she's not socializing but instead seems busy with the sheet in front of her. Her lips pucker and her brows furrow as she erases something off the paper.

Taking a deep breath, I cautiously walk towards the girl and stop in front of the desk. From a distance the hoodie the girl's wearing looked white, but up close I see it's actually a very light blue with soaking wet shoulders thanks to the girl's wet hair. The blonde girl starts yanking on her hoodie strings in apparent frustration. Whatever she's doing, it's not going well.

"Ex-excuse me," I stutter, gaining the girl's attention. I'm frozen for a solid moment when the girl looks at me with her large cerulean eyes. She has the same eyes as the boy in the hall! The two of them must be siblings, but their resemblance is enough to throw me off before I remember the girl isn't the one I bumped into while slowing time. "Is anyone sitting here?" I point at the empty chair next to her.

The girl shakes her head. I notice her observing me as I sit down next to her. If I didn't know any better I would swear she's surprised I would even talk to her, but something tells me this girl is anything but shy and quiet. I try to ignore her stares, but her gaze is too strong to pretend it's not there. Carefully, I look over at her. She's still silent, but I see she's struggling to keep her mouth shut. "Why are you so quiet?" I ask. That was definitely the wrong thing to say.

"Because Len says I talk too much and too loud that it bothers people so I need to be quiet or else nobody's going to like me and I don't want to scare you away when it's so obvious you're new - I mean you have to be new or else I would have seen you before and here I am rambling for no reason but I can't help it-" And then I lose track of what she's saying.

I managed to pick up a British accent when she started talking, a thick and heavy accent like the actress Kathryn Prescott. Only now it wouldn't matter if she spoke in an American accent or a Japanese one because she's talking too fast for me to comprehend what she's saying. She could be speaking Chinese for all I know.

Something I immediately notice is how this girl bounces when she talks, reminding of a chihuahua or any small dog that jumps when it barks. There's a lot of energy pent up in her tiny body, and it's waiting to break free. She's without a doubt more hyper than a five-year-old on a sugar rush.

"Enough!" I say a little louder than intended as I place my right index finger over her lips, silencing the talkative blonde. Her eyes widen even more - quit a surprise since they're so large already - as she looks at me. "You need to slow down, Triple Shot," I say, and she arches an eyebrow at the unusual name. Can't say I blame her, Cul says I always give the weirdest nicknames. "What did you do," I begin, "overdose on the sugar in your cereal and then gulp down your mama's coffee?"

"I don't like coffee," she mumbles under my finger. I don't know if that's a beautiful thing to hear or more on the lines of awful. Beautiful because I will never have to worry about her and caffeine, but awful because she doesn't like coffee. How can anyone not like coffee? That's totally inhuman!

"Just slow down, okay," I say more calmly this time. "You're talking so fast I don't understand what you're saying."

"Sorry," she looks at her lap, "I get a little too excited and start speaking really fast. I can't always help it."

"It's okay," I smile as I move my finger away from her lips. "When I get super nervous I talk so fast I sound like a chipmunk."

"Really?" the girl begins to laugh.

"Totally," I respond, and it's not a total lie. When I get nervous - especially when talking in front of large crowds - I unintentionally start slowing down time. Not enough for anyone to appear frozen in my point of view, but just enough where it sounds to them like I'm talking twice as fast as normal. "I'm Miku, by the way," I introduce myself.

"Rin," the girl returns. I still see how she's bursting with energy, but she seems to be restraining it the best she can. With her large cerulean eyes and bobbed blonde hair she's without a doubt the cutest girl I've ever seen. She even radiates a childish personality.

"Nice to meet you, Rin," I return. I glance at the paper she had been working on and find it covered in problems. "Trouble in math," I don't even have to phrase it like a question.

"Is it that obvious?" Rin pouts. "I can't afford to not turn in another sheet. Because my stupid brother ruined my homework last week, Mr. Hiyama said that he will only overlook it if I get a perfect score on this worksheet. If not I'll have detention after school."

I lean over and study the paper. "Hey, you're doing polynomials!" I exclaim.

"Failing is the better fitting word," Rin sighs in frustration.

"You just have your numbers backwards is all," I note as I point out her mistakes. "See? You need to multiply these two numbers first before multiplying the ones on the ends."

"That would make sense," Rin muses as I show her how to solve the problem.

"Once you understand what you're doing this is actually really easy," I promise as I scan the rest of the sheet. I frown when I realize these problems are for Algebra 2 students, not Algebra 1 like I was expecting. She can't be a junior, can she? "Rin," I begin, "how old are you?"

"I just turned seventeen during Christmas break a few weeks ago," she replies as she sharpens her dull pencil with a portable pencil sharper she dug out of her bag.

I snap my head her way and try to process the information. How is she older than me? She looks no more than fourteen!

"Well," she exhales as she puts away the sharpener, "I guess I had better accept the fact I suck at maths and am going to enjoy two lovely hours of detention."

"What are you talking about?" I grin. "There's no way you're going to be put in detention today." Seeing the quizzical look Rin's giving me, I add, "I'm going to help out with this evil assignment."

"Are you serious?" Rin asks in disbelief.

"From what I understand your task is to ace this homework," I answer, "but there doesn't seem to be a rule against getting outside information."

Rin's jaw is hanging slightly. I'm guessing no one offers to help her with her homework often, but she seems like such a sweet girl that I can't find any reason not to. "Oh, thank you, Miku!" Rin exclaims as she tackles me and wraps her arms around my waist. "Thank you thank you thank you!" she cries into my shoulder as she keeps a strong hold on me.

"Not a hugger," I say, feeling my ribs crack under the extreme pressure. For a little girl Rin is incredibly strong! I notice that everyone in the room is staring at us, but it doesn't bother me. Seeing how Rin doesn't plan on letting go of me any time soon I awkwardly pat her on the back. At least I've managed to make a new friend.

#

Psychology is my class after homeroom. After showing Rin my syllabus she told me we had lunch period followed by free period at the same time, leaving us no official classes together. "You have two classes with my brother though," she says as her eyes scan the copy paper.

That's beautiful. I'd feel better if he and I didn't share a class. What if he finds something about me familiar?

Rin doesn't tell me which classes I share with her brother, nor do I ask. Instead all I ask for is directions to the Psychology classroom. After I'm pointed in the right direction, I promise Rin I'll see her at lunch before I stalk down the now crowded halls.

I find the room with only slight difficulty. I introduce myself to the teacher, and he points out an available desk for me. It's in the second row and roughly set in the middle. Just my kind of spot.

The room already has some students already seated while more flood in. Being an elective class and not mandatory, there is a wide age group of the students in the room. I see a black haired girl who has to be a freshman talking to a green haired boy about her age. The boy says something that leads the girl to place her face in her palms and shake her head.

Despite paying next to no attention to the students entering the class, I notice immediately when the blond boy walks into the room. Rin's brother, and the guy who may or may not have noticed me during my rush to the principal's office. Stupid shoe coming untied.

I look away before he sees me, but even then I can still tell when he notices me. It feels like he's drilling holes in the back of my head. Crap, he definitely noticed me. Can this get any worse?

Blondie sits in the desk next to mine.

Welp, spoke too soon.

Try as I might to ignore him, I cannot stand the pressure of his sharp and intense gaze. Geez, he and Rin both with the hard stares. Putting on my best glare, I shoot a dark look at him and hiss, "Take a picture, it'll last longer." I immediately turn away after I get the words out. I want to come across as a normal girl being annoyed by the boy staring at her; no more, no less.

I look to my right to see a girl with beautiful long pink hair sitting in the desk next to mine. "I love your shirt," I smile, hoping if I talk to her the boy will leave me alone.

"Thank you," she replies. "I made it myself."

"Really?" I ask in amazement. "When I was twelve I tried to make a dress for Halloween, but I ended up stabbing my poor fingers so much my mom wouldn't let me near the sowing needles again."

"It takes a lot of practice," the girl says. Something behind me catches her attention. "Uh," she begins, "you might want to look behind you."

Doing just that, I turn right on time for the sound effect of a camera going off. The boy is holding is phone in front of me, and by his grin I can tell he just got a good picture of my face. "What are you doing?" I demand.

"Taking a picture," he replies as he sets his phone away, and like Rin he has a thick British accent. "You invited the idea."

By the way he's grinning at me I know all I ever need to know about him. I admit it, he is rather attractive, but the problem is he knows it. Guys who are attractive and know it are bad enough as it is, but this guy might think because he has an accent there isn't a girl alive who won't melt over him. Time to prove him wrong.

"Leave me alone, you prissy," I say, using the word that is usually used to refer to a stuck up Brit, though the general meaning is anyone - Brit or no - on a really high horse. The boy's brows furrow in confusion.

Thankfully the teacher begins calling role then. Based on the order he's calling names he doesn't seem to believe in alphabetical order. "Kagamine, Len," the teacher calls out, and the boy next to me answers, "Here."

Len Kagamine? So that's his name. I'm going to have to keep my eyes on the lookout for him.

"Hatsune, Miku," my name is called, breaking my train of thought.

"Oh," I raise my hand. "Present!"

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: Even though this fanfic currently takes place in January, the weather is actually quit warm and there's no snow. This is because the characters, like me, live in a warmer climate. The state they reside in? Possibly Florida, but for now that shall be left to your imagination. Just thought I'd clear that up in advance.<strong>

**Anyway, Miku befriended Rin and has now officially met Len~! I'm not going to lie, Rin is my favorite character to write, and the conversations between Miku and Len are just as fun. These possibly have to be my favorite ever incarnations of the three. :)**

**-Ray (and Kate)**

**(PS Kate would like to apologise for not uploading in time, she feels like an idiot but she forgot)**


	5. Lunch With the Time Manipulator

Chapter 05: Lunch with the Time Manipulator ~ Len

Prissy. What's that even supposed to mean? I mean I know what it means, obviously, I have about five versions of the Oxford English Dictionary at home. I don't even know what is the default dictionary for America, I just brought all mine over from Britain when I moved. Hence why I still get some American spellings wrong. Not that I actually ever attempt to get them right. I am British therefore I shall spell the British way. Come on, don't tell me 'color' looks nicer than 'colour'; the 'u' just makes the word look a lot more 'pretty'.

But back to dictionaries. The American's probably use the Scrabble dictionary, or is Scrabble one of the many things that seems to not exist over here?

I hate this country sometimes.

But she says prissy as if it's supposed to be some special American insult for Brits, which is not true, considering it itself is originally a British word. I bet she doesn't even realise it's a fusion of both 'prim' and 'sissy'. I doubt she even knows what those words mean. A lot of people don't, and it's pretty bloody frustrating.

But ramblings aside, I found Little Miss Time Manipulator. I didn't think I'd find her so bloody quickly, but I guess I drew the long straw. I've always had good luck though, so I should have assumed it wouldn't have taken too long to hunt her down.

I try to play it cool. Well, I don't have to try, I just act my normal self. What I try to do is pretend that the incident in the hallway didn't happen. It's obvious that she's trying too, the way she had caught my attention at the beginning of the lesson and had instantly looked away. It was pretty adorable, I have to admit.

And now I know her name. Miku, pretty sweet.

And I have to say she's stunning. A really attractive girl. Large eyes, thin but not too skinny, a perfect figure and a beautiful face. She's definitely my type of girl.

Miku decides not to talk to me though. I don't see what's so bad about my pretty face, most girls like me. But it's all right, because soon I'm joined by Nero, who's late as usual.

Surprisingly the teacher doesn't notice him slyly slip into class and into the seat next to me, the entire time grinning like an idiot.

"Yo, dude, what's up?" he asks as he turns to me.

"New girl's what's up," I say and I jerk a thumb towards Miku.

She doesn't look at me, but I notice her shoulders stiffen.

Nero leans back on his chair to take a better look at her. "My, you have a nice face. What's your name, sweet cheeks?"

'You have a nice face'. Nero's stereotypical awkward pick up line. Sometimes I swear he deliberately uses awkward pick up lines, but then again some girls are pretty strange and like that sort of thing. Hopefully Miku's not one of them, because awkward is by far not my style of flirting.

Miku's eyes flicker up and she just stares at Nero before returning to her work.

"Her name's Miku, she's not very talkative," I whisper to him as he returns all four legs of his chair to the ground.

"I can see," he says in reply.

Miku groans and finally she turns to look at us. "Will you stop talking about me as if I'm not here?" she hisses.

"Just ignore them, honey," the pink-haired girl next to her says calmly. "They're both idiots, don't pay them any attention."

Nero and I both frowns at the pink-haired girl, and she just smiles sweetly in return. Her name is Luka Megurine, beautiful, stunning, smart and classy (for an American). She's always dressed impeccably, generally in something hand made, and is one of the kindest girls you can meet., though she's never kind to me. I don't know why, but I barely flirt with her so it can't be because of that. Besides, Gakupo flirts with her all the time, way more than I do, but I guess maybe she doesn't care about him because he's the class clown and she just pities him. Bless him, he's never going to get a girlfriend.

Luka just smiles sickly sweetly at us, and goes to talk to Miku. And that brings us around to the end of the lesson. Miku and Luka refuse to speak to us, and we just focus on our work.

A beautiful first impression, Len. Beautiful. At least I had a photo.

#

"I like her already," Nero says as we left the class.

"Like who?" I ask.

"Who do you think I'm talking about?" Nero snorts. "Miku of course. You should go out with her."

"Why don't you go out with her?"

He snorts once again. "As if she's my type."

"And what makes you think she's my type?"

"Because every girl is your type, Len."

I just shake my head in reply. "You're making me out to be a player or something."

"Well aren't you?"

I groan as we navigate down the oncoming stream of students. "No, I am not. I may be a bit of a flirt, but not a player. Get it right."

Nero laughs and reaches up a hand to ruffle my hair. God damn I hate how he's taller than me. "Aw, did I hurt little Lenny-kin's feelings?"

I don't reply. Damn, Norms are annoying.

Oh, to clarify to anyone who doesn't know, Norms are normal people. Sometimes affectionately called Normies, but yeah. 'Normals' doesn't have quite as much of a ring to it as 'Norms' does.

Some Norms know of Monsters existences. We pretty much trust them with our lives. Most Norms, though, do not know of our existence. Nero was one of those. He's completely oblivious, quite innocently so.

"I don't have any feelings to hurt," I reply as I slip away from Nero. "Don't get the wrong idea."

Nero just laughs and shoves his hands into his pockets as we head to the our next class.

#

When lunch period comes around, Nero and I pick Piko up on the way to the canteen. Piko greets me with a grin and I grin back, though he had no idea why I was grinning. I'd found the Time Manipulator, but he's probably grinning because that's pretty much his default programmed expression.

"So, guess who I found in Psychology," I say as he walks one side of me, so I 'm effectively in a guy sandwich where the bread is slices of Nero and Piko.

"Nero?" he asks innocently.

I snort. "Nah, guess again."

"Luka? Did she finally give you a smile?"

This time Nero snorts. "In Len's deepest dreams."

I shake my head again. "I met her."

"Who?"

"HER. You know, the girl in the corridor this morning."

Piko's eyes widen. "Oh, you mean the...TM?"

TM. Time Manipulator.

Nero, bless him, looks bloody confused, but he knows Piko and I clearly have some cogs missing when it comes to our friendship so we commonly have codes for different things. He has long come to terms with not questioning anything.

We reach the canteen and instantly head over to our area. Rin, Miki, Iroha, Gumi and Sonika are currently the only ones there. Kaito I assume is outside getting sunburnt, Yukari is God knows where, and little Oliver is most likely with some friends who are closer to his age.

"How's my little Rinny?" Nero asks as he ruffles my twin's hair.

Rin, as per normal, completely ignores him and looks up at me. "Len! Len! Guess what?"

"What?" I ask as I slip into the seat next to her. At the same time Piko sits down next to Miki.

She's bouncing up and down in her chair as she gives me a very large grin that took up about half her face. "I got a new friend! You'll love her, trust me, she's pretty darn cool. And pretty. Really, really pretty. You'll love her!"

I roll my eyes in a stereotypical translation of 'I don't care', but I'm actually pleased that Rin has finally found someone. Hopefully they'll be all right.

"She's only just joined today," Rin continues at one hundred miles per hour, and an idea slowly dawns on me. "And I said to meet me at lunch. Oh look, there she is right now." She jumps up from her seat and waves her arms frantically through the air. "Hey! Miku! Mikuuuuu!"

Everyone at the table looks up. The person Rin's desperately trying to steal the attention of is the slim tealette standing with Luka. Luka looks up, prodding the tealette, and points over to Rin. Miku looks over, immediately noticing Rin and smiling, and then her gaze rests on me and she frowns. Still, she thanks Luka and slips through the crowd towards our table.

Rin bounds over to her. "Hey, you found us!"

As Rin seems preoccupied with her new friend Nero bends down to whisper in my ear. "I'm gonna go see Neru, see ya later."

I wave goodbye as he leaves and Rin comes bounding back, dragging Miku by the hand.

"Guys, this is Miku. Miku, these are the guys!" Rin says with a grin. "Everyone, say 'hi'."

There's a chorus of 'hey's and 'hi's, and all the girls waves politely. Piko just turns to me and says just a little too loudly, "So this is Little Miss TM."

Miku instantly looks over at him. "Miss TM?"

I grin and held a finger to my lips. "Shh, it's my and Piko's secret code."

Miku stares at me blandly. In fact everyone stares at me.

"Have you guys met?" Miki asks chirpily after a couple of seconds of silence.

"Yeah, in the-" I start, about to add 'corridor' but Miku cut sme short.

"Psychology." She stares at me. "Why are you here?"

"Just hanging out with my girls," I say with a smile as I indicate to the others sitting there.

"Am I included under that demo-graph?" Piko asks.

"Of course, nancy boy. Of course."

Miki giggles as Sonika looks up. "Ignore 'em, darlin', they're just idiots."

Piko and I are not amused and pull disappointed faces. Sonika shrugs as if to say 'who cares if I hurt your pride?' and Miku laughs.

"Funny enough, Luka already told me that," she says.

"Well, I guess I better introduce the guys," Rin says. "I guess you've already met my twin, Len. He's pretty cool, so I hope you get along."

The dead stare the tealette gives me clearly shows that she is not interested in getting along.

"The girl that looks like a guy is Piko," Rin says, receiving an unamused expression from my robot friend. She takes a couple of seconds to realise what she's said, laughs and then corrects herself. "The guy who looks like a girl is Piko. He's Len's best friend, you don't really see one without the other. They act more like girl best friends though."

I put an arm around Piko's shoulders and pull him against me. "It's not my fault he's really pretty."

In response to this he tugs my ponytail, and I do my best not to wince. "And it's not my fault he has long hair."

Miki snorts at this, and so Rin turns to her next. "This is Miki, and the pink haired one in the oversized hat is her younger sister. I know they don't look anything alike but just go with the flow."

Miku does look slightly confused by this, or maybe it's because of the (ridiculously) oversized hat Iroha happens to be wearing.

"The only other guy here is Nero," Rin continues and she looks around so she could point at my fellow blonde, and she frowns when she realises he's not there. "Where's Nero? I thought he was here."

I shake my head. "He never was, you were just imagining things."

Piko snickers slightly as poor little Rin looks bizarrely confused but she just shrugs and continues with the introductions. She'll find Nero later.

Rin moves on to the next two. They're both green haired, something that was a reason they'd become friends in the first place, although Sonika's is fairly darker. Gumi is a member of our club, and so is Sonika, but she's a Norm, one of the few that knows of our existence.

"The lighter haired one is Gumi the vegetarian animal lover. If you eat meat in front of her she'll cry, but she has no problem wearing leather shoes. The darker haired one is Sonika the meatetarian Normie, who specifically loves burgers."

"Which is why she's the devil incarnate," Gumi mutters as Sonika playfully hits her in the arm.

Miku doesn't seem interested in that though, she's just questioning Rin's choice of words. "'Normie'?"

Rin is silent for a second as she clearly tries to think of a way to dig herself out of the Normie hole she's dug herself into, but Sonika with her smooth words instantly gets there.

"It's cos I'm the most normal one 'ere," she says with a grin. "Despite bein' British, which 'alf of us seem to be."

"Most normal?" Miku questions.

"Yeah, if you hang out with us you're gonna realise none of us are normal," I say as I look directly at her. "In fact, I think you'll fit in perfectly, because I doubt you're normal either."

Miku looks back at me and meets my gaze directly, and I have no doubt that she knows that I know of her powers.

"I'm more normal than you think," she says slowly after she has apparently gotten her voice back. "What I'm wondering is what makes you not normal."

"His strange addiction to long hair," Rin say, completely oblivious to what Miku's question actually translates to.

'So what kind of Monster are you?'

"Stick around and you might find out," I say with a sly (hopefully not too sly) smile.

"Stop flirtin', she ain't interested," Sonika says, throwing the wrapper of her chocolate bar at my head although missing me by a couple of centimetres.

"Stop throwing rubbish," Gumi tells her as she playfully punches her best friend in the arm.

"Sonika's right. I'm not interested in a snobby prissy flirt like you," Miku replies as she and Rin sit down (there it was, that word, 'prissy'. What was it with that word?)

She may not be interested in me in that kind of way, but I know she's interested in me, because I'm on to her and she's on to me. I guess it's going to be a race to see who can get the other to crack first.

**~Author's Notes~**

**Hurray for a not late update! So, Len's in love with Miku, and the last six lines of this chapter all start with 's'. Nothing else to say, apart from what do you think of the gang?**

**~Kate (And Ray)**


	6. Free Period, Part 1

Chapter 06: Free Period, Part 1 ~ Miku

Seriously Miku? Did you really have to play the prissy card again? It was fine the first time, but saying the word again before lunch is overdoing it. You're starting to sound like Cousin Maika.

Maika's my Southern cousin, and boy does she love to call stuck ups "prissies" and "pansies." I honestly don't know where the word originated from, all I know is that some Southerners associate it with Brits because the stereotype for the British is that they all think they're better and classier than Americans. Of course Maika doesn't care what you're nationality is; if you give her the impression of being a snot your new name as far as she's concerned is Prissy.

If she and Len ever met he might as well just introduce himself as Prissy Kagamine. Actually, that'd be pretty funny.

Anyway, I try to be polite with the conversation during lunch, but I have so much on my mind that whenever I'm asked a question all I give is few worded answers.

"How far away is your old home from here?"

"Six hours."

"Why did you move?"

"Dad's job."

"What school did you go to?"

"Pineneedle High School."

"How do you like it here so far?"

"It's all right."

"Do you have a boyfriend?"

Seeing how Len asked that question I chose to ignore him.

"What's your dad do?"

Interesting question, Piko. My dad works for an organization designed to keep what Norms call "Monsters" - we prefer to be called "Average Challenged", thank you very much - hidden from the general public. If the whole world knew vampires and dragons and the like exist serious shiz would be going down. I mean, most of the worst wars in history started because a few Norms got paranoid by us Monsters and wanted to wipe us off the face of the earth. People like my dad do their best to prevent such events from happening ever again.

"Stuff," is what I actually answer.

I know I'm coming across as anti-social and somewhat rude, but I'm in no mood to interact. Besides, the way everyone is talking to me and staring at me kind of makes me feel like an animal in a zoo exhibit and every now and again someone is throwing a peanut at me in hopes that I'll do something entertaining. Rin seems to pick up on this and doesn't pester me to speak too much, and I appreciate her for that. I pay enough attention to the conversations around me to give a real answer whenever someone, more out of being polite than actually caring to hear my opinion no doubt, asks me for my thoughts on this or that, but other than that my mind is racing five hundred miles per hour.

TM. At first I was confused since the first thing to pop into my head was "Technical Machine", but since Pokémon obviously has nothing to do with anything I toss the words aside. It's with horror creeping up my spine I realize that by "TM" Piko meant "Time Manipulator." They know exactly what I am.

Thankfully Rin slipped up by calling Sonika a "Normie." If not for her loose tongue I wouldn't be able to relax. Minus the green haired girl helping herself to a bacon cheese burger, it seems nobody else at this table is a Norm. If Len and Piko were Norms and knew what I was things would have gone very bad very quickly, but since that's not the case I can calm down and not have to worry about my secret being revealed to the whole school.

Of course that doesn't mean I'm going to fess up.

I know I'm quoting Spider Man when I say this, but great power comes with great responsibility. I can't go around telling every Monster I meet that I can slow time. Like telling someone your middle name, letting someone know what I am is a sign of trust. If someone finds out that's one thing, but my telling another is a different story entirely. Stuff like this should never be taken lightly.

"Are you always this quiet?"

Looking towards the voice, I find Len smiling at me as if he's genuinely interested as to whether or not I'm shy and is trying to make me feel comfortable. Don't worry, Buddy. I am perfectly comfortable.

I take my attention away from my peanut butter and banana sandwich with a side of vanilla yogurt - a favorite lunch combo of mine - and smile at him in a kind manner. "Hey Len," I play the name on my lips and am grateful it sounds so natural that I don't seem as if I'm forcing it out. I'm not going to lie: I like Len's name. "Have you ever heard the joke they don't tell stupid people?"

A mixture of surprise I addressed him by name and confusion by what I said having nothing to do with his question appears on his face. "No," he replies. It isn't until my smile evolves into a smirk and everyone at the table begins to laugh does Len discover, too late, his fatal mistake. "Dammit!"

I knew throwing him off would produce good results. He probably wouldn't have fallen for it had I sounded like my usual snarky self.

"You walked into that one," Piko laughs as he wipes an imaginary tear from his eye. Len glares at Piko, causing the white haired boy to laugh even harder.

Miki raises an arm. "I request the highest of fives." I reply by happily slapping her open palm.

"I can't stop," Rin gasps between laughs. "Every time I see Len's face I crack up all over again."

My mistake was looking at said blond's face. His scowl was funnier than the joke. I laughed so hard I'm pretty sure I snorted once or twice. Maybe three times. Curse my dorky laugh.

"Haha, very funny," he says in perfect monotone.

"Just be happy I didn't ask you if you've seen the clown in Wal-Mart that hides from gay people," I say as I feel the rest of my earlier tension vanish. I'm not sure about he and I getting along, but I think I can tolerate him. When he chooses to be tolerable, of course.

"Wait, what clown?" Piko asks, completely innocent and oblivious. "I haven't seen a clown."

This throws the rest of us back into laughter as poor Piko looks as confused as ever. It's official. I'm really going to like it here.

#

After lunch is free period. Well, only for Rin and me. Everyone else has a class they need to go to.

"It was nice meeting you" and "See ya around" is thrown at me as each person heads of to his next class, or maybe I should say "her" because the only guys here look feminine. Who made masculine pronouns the default gender pronouns of the English language anyway?

I waved back at all of them and simply smile instead of replying. I'm not sure what to say, really. Never once had I been the center of so many people's attention before. Add in the way Len's looking at me and I begin to feel as if I showed up to school naked. Thank God X-Ray vision is just a myth and there's no way anyone is capable of it.

"Don't you have a picture you can stare at?" I ask, my smile now wiped off my face as I sling my backpack over my shoulder, my relaxed stature now fading as I feel my body tense up again.

"It's not as pretty as the real thing," Len says as he gives me his most charming smile. He doesn't give up easily, does he? Even Piko already left for his next class, giving me the impression he was certain there is no need to stick around. Such a shame for Len I don't have a reputation for caving in.

"I am not interested," I say for the second time that day, and it wouldn't surprise me if I have to repeat it during the next class we share. As the thought crosses my mind I consider showing Len my syllabus and asking him which class we have together, but I don't. It would take too much effort to pull my syllabus back out. "I am not bewitched by your accent," I continue. Most girls love a man with an accent, but sadly for him I'm not most girls. "To top it off, cocky flirts aren't my type."

"Well what is your type?" Len asks as he shoves his hands into his pockets. Oh gosh, he probably thinks this is a game.

"Not blond," I snort.

"What's wrong with blonde hair?!" Rin demands, and I notice she has her hand in her brother's backpack. I don't ask her what she's doing, and Len doesn't bother to acknowledge his twin.

"It's my natural hair color," Len says as if that will make a difference.

"Stop wasting your time on me," I order. "Go sweet talk someone else, someone air headed enough to want to go on a date with you. You won't be getting anywhere with me, so just quit while you're ahead." With that I spin on my heel and begin to stalk out of the cafeteria.

"Could I at least get your number?!" Len calls after me, his tone of voice heavily suggesting he has no interest in taking my warning seriously.

I answer by, without looking back, raising my right arm high above my head and showing Len my pretty middle finger. War has officially begun. Who will come out on top? Len and his persistence, or me and my stubbornness? Given his type he'll probably grow bored after a week or two. Three tops. They all do.

"Hey Miku, wait up!"

Looking over my shoulder, I see Rin running after me. In my annoyance over Len I kind of forgot about her. Good going, Miku. That's the perfect way to start a friendship.

"Sorry about Len," Rin says when she catches up to me. With how fast she was running I'm surprised she doesn't have to catch her breath. I wonder what kind of Monster she is. With how energetic she is I'd swear she could be a Sprite, literal spheres of energy capable of taking human form, but with how laidback her twin is I have to throw that theory out the window. There's no such thing as a laidback Sprite, as they're all always bursting with energy. What kind of Monster could be energetic or laidback based on personality? I know I know the answer, but what is it? I get so sidetracked with the thought I have to remind myself to answer Rin.

"Is he always this annoying?" I ask.

"Usually," Rin answers, "but he's not so bad once you get to know him. I'm sure in time the two of you will get along famously."

I have my doubts, but I don't voice them. "Why were you digging through Len's backpack?" is what I allow myself to say.

"He was bothering you, so I thought I would take this." With that Rin flashes a sheet covered in scribbles of ink, and an impish grin covers her face. "And he ate the last pudding cup last night after I clearly told him I wanted it, so there's that."

"His math homework," I say after I realize what Rin is holding.

"He didn't even finish it, though," Rin frowns as she stares at the sheet, "and he got most of the answers wrong. I think I might have actually done him a favor by taking this." With that she shoves the paper back into her bag, creating various random crests in the sheet.

"Speaking of which," I begin, "have you had math class yet?"

Rin practically glowed she was smiling so brightly. "Mr. Hiyama was speechless when he saw my sheet. I got a perfect score! And it's all thanks to you, Miku! I really owe you one."

"Don't mention it," I wave off. Now if only I can see Len's reaction when he gets to his math class and notices his homework is missing. Serves him right for ignoring his sister in an attempt to flirt with me.

"So anyway," Rin bounces on the balls of her feet, "since today's your first day I should probably show you around campus before free period ends."

"You would?" I say with relief. "Rin, that would be so helpful."

"Then let's not wait another second!" Rin grins as she takes hold of my wrist and pulls me along with her. I try my best to keep up with her, but Rin is apparently a very fast runner with amazing stamina. I'm about to trip from exhaustion until something falls out of the sky and lands in front of us.

"Kya!" I jump back, but Rin only smiles.

Pointing at the fallen figure, Rin proclaims, "This is Nero, the person I mentioned earlier." The look on my face must be surprise from how casually Rin reacts to someone falling from the sky because Rin waves off, "He falls out of trees all the time, it's no big deal. Nero has a thick skull."

"I don't think you know what that means, Rin," Nero, the boy I recognize as one share Psychology with, says as he rubs his hand over his face, still lying on his back on the grass under an oak tree.

Rin crouches next to Nero and smiles at him. "This is my new friend Miku," she points at me. "I'm going to spend free period showing her around. Want to join us?" Flicking her gaze in my direction, Rin adds, "As long as it's okay with Miku, of course."

"I don't mind," I insist. "The more the merrier, right?"

The blonde girl beams at my reply. "So what do you say?" Rin asks Nero. "Would you like to help me show Miku around?"

"Sure," Nero answers as he looks up at Rin's face. "Your nostrils look beautiful at this angle."

I furrow my brows at the weird compliment paid towards Rin, but said girl doesn't even seem to notice or catch on. "Come on, Goofball," she says as she stands to her feet. "Free period won't last all day."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: Okay, so the proper title to this chapter should probably be something like "Free Period Begins", but since this is a two parter the actual title wins out. This chapter came out so long Kate-Chan and I agreed it had to be cut it in half, resulting in Len's complete absence in the next update (sorry Len fans). On the flip side, we will be getting to know some of the other characters next week. :D <strong>

**-Ray (and Darling Kate)**

**(Kate: PS, sorry about the really messed up previous Chapter 06, this website seems to love scrambling my documents up, thanks to fangirloid for pointing it out)**


	7. Free Period, Part 2

Chapter 07: Free Period, Part 2 ~ Miku

The first stop on our tour is the tennis court, something that surprises me for my old school, or really almost any school, doesn't have a tennis court. "Sports at this school are really popular," Nero explains. "Before the school was here this used to be a park, and when the building was built the courts were left so students could play basketball or something. Some students use the fields during free period while others form clubs like tennis clubs or soccer clubs."

"Why do you Americans call football 'soccer'?" Rin randomly asks. "It makes sense to call the game 'football' because the players are kicking around a ball with their feet, but in your version of football an egg shaped ball is being thrown around by the players' hands."

"I honestly don't know, Rin," I answer with a sigh. "We Americans just like to be different, I suppose. Nearly every country except this one uses the metric system and the Celsius scale."

"This country is weird," Rin mumbles.

"Please," Nero says as he begins walking backwards, "you call fries 'chips', chips 'crisps', and sweaters 'jumpers.' One time I even heard you refer to the cafeteria as 'the canteen.' You have to admit, Rin, the UK is weird, too."

"Fair enough," Rin bounces her shoulders. With her lips making an O shape, Rin begins, "Nero, watch out for that-" Nero, walking backwards and thus paying no attention to where he's going, slams his back into thick bark. ". . . tree."

"Thanks for the heads up," Nero rubs the back of his head.

"Well, at least we're at the tennis court," Rin smiles as she runs ahead, leaving Nero and me behind.

I follow after her with Nero close on my heels. There are two girls on the field. One of them has a bob cut brown hair styled in nearly a boyish way. Her shirt looks tight on her chest, but based on her bust size I think she doesn't have much of a choice on the matter. Playing with the brunette is a girl I immediately recognize.

"Hi, Miku," Luka waves when she notices me, missing the ball as it sails past her in the process.

"Fifteen-love," the other girl announces, a large grin plastered to her face.

"That's Luka, but you already know her," Rin points out as I wave to the pinkette, "and the other girl is her best friend, Meiko. They usually play tennis during free period, and sometimes after school. They're pretty athletic, especially Meiko." After looking at them in their sports attire, I can't say they don't look the part of sporty girls.

"'Sup?" Meiko calls out to me, walking towards the fence while Luka retrieves the tennis ball.

"Other than being the new girl, nothing much," I casually shrug as I also approach the fence. "'Sup with you?"

"Kicking Luka's butt," Meiko grins. Now that I'm closer I can tell that her eyes are a lovely shade of honey. "Luka told me about the new girl who flat out rejected Len Kagamine, and unless I'm mistaken that would be you."

"It's me all right," I say. "I don't dig cocky flirts."

"Mist drive him crazy. I'm impressed. We should get along very well." Meiko replies. Noticing Rin and Nero standing not far behind me, Meiko waves at them and offers a friendly smile. "I see you befriended Hyper Piper despite her relation to the flirt."

"My name is not Piper," I hear Rin grumble in annoyance. My guess is she hears the nickname often, probably a label the whole school refers to her as.

"Better than being called 'the weirdo Akita twin'," Nero tells her in a way that suggests he has both an interesting reputation and a twin. I'll have to ask about that later.

"Even if her twin is currently my least favorite person, it's kind of hard not to befriend Rin when she's so darn lovable," I smile. I don't have to look at her to know Rin brightens considerably at the compliment.

"I'm glad you have managed to make friends on your first day," Luka says, the softest smile touching her lips as she, too, moves to stand next to the fence.

Returning the smile I add, "And thank you for helping me find the cafeteria, Luka."

"No biggie," Luka returns. To Rin and Nero she yells, "So how are you two doing?"

"Wonderful, my beauty queen," Nero smiles. "Ow!" he suddenly exclaims, startling me.

"Sorry," Rin quickly apologizes.

"What happened?" I ask as I turn my attention back towards to the two and find Nero rubbing his ribs.

"I was putting my hands on my hips," Rin answers, "and since Nero was standing too close to me I ended up elbowing him in the ribs." Rin then places her hands on her hips in demonstration, her elbows threatening to stab anyone who stood in their way.

"You need to be more careful," Nero tells her, his hand still on his ribs.

"_You_ need to be more careful," Rin counters, and unless I'm thinking too much into the statement she sounds somewhat threatening.

"Are they always like this?" I ask Meiko and Luka.

"Sometimes," Meiko answers.

"My apologies for the disruption," Nero says as he stops rubbing his ribs.

"Isn't he just adorable?" Meiko whispers to me, sounding as if she's talking about a younger brother. I notice Rin is glaring at Meiko as if she's trying to accomplish murder by staring.

"In his own way," I casually remark.

"Well, it was nice chatting with you," Rin says, "but I promised Miku I would show her the campus, and we need to go now if we're going to finish before free period ends." Grabbing my wrist, Rin pulls me along and tells the girls, "See you two later."

After promising to see Luka in Psychology tomorrow and Meiko whenever, I follow Rin as she drags me along in effort to continue showing me around. Of course after they're out of sight Rin nearly snaps my spine hugging me for saying what I did about her. There's no doubt now. I'm going to have bruises on my waist for the next few weeks, and that's assuming Rin doesn't hug me any more after today.

#

Rin and Nero show me around fairly quickly, leaving us plenty of time to hang out before our next classes. We're now standing in an open field, probably used for soccer. Rin had long since taken off her hoodie and tied the sleeves around her waist, and Nero removed his own jacket as well. For January, it's pretty warm.

"Why are you two called Hyper Piper and 'the weirdo Akita twin', respectively?" I ask, certain I already know the answer for the first one but not wanting to single Nero out.

"Rin is known throughout the whole school for her inability to sit still during class," Nero answers. "When she moved here the teachers kept calling her out for bouncing around in her desk so much. She's still jumpy in her seat, but the teachers now know to just ignore it."

"And Nero is just flat out weird," Rin snickers. "But you don't have to know him for five minutes to figure that one out."

"And the twin part?" I question.

"I have a twin sister," Nero explains. "Her name's Neru."

"So the both of you have twin siblings?" I raise an eyebrow. It's not every day you meet two sets of twins going to the same school as you, let alone the rare case of sets of twins who aren't the same gender.

"You bet." Throwing an arm over Rin's shoulders, Nero says, "Sorry, that's the one club you can never join. Twins only."

"That's fine," I smile, "Rin and I get to have a girls only club."

"Whoa, I'm popular," Rin giggles. "I'm a part of so many clubs!"

"With the weirdest people," Nero grins.

"You know you're the weirdest of them all!" Rin laughs as she shakes out from under his arm. "You're even the most normal, so that's how I know for a fact you're just flat out weird!"

"Am I the weirdest or the most normal?" Nero asks. "You make no sense, Rin."

Actually, I understand her comment perfectly. Nero is the most normal because he's a Norm, but he's also the weirdest because he's, you know, quirky. My first impressions of him weren't the greatest at first, but now I'm getting to know him he's actually not so bad. Hanging out with him and Rin both was enough to make me forget about my problem.

But now that I'm thinking about it I'm worrying all over again. This can't continue any longer.

"Say, mind if I make a phone call?" I ask. I really need to talk to someone, and I'm not sure how much longer I can wait.

"Sure," Rin answers, bouncing on the balls of her feet. How anyone could have so much energy, I'll never know.

"I'll be just a moment," I promise as I walk away from the duo and stand by the bleachers. As my cell is calling the number I punched in I focus my attention on my new friends. Rin punches Nero in the shoulder and takes off, and he chases after her. After he taps her on the back, Rin turns around and begins chasing him. They're playing tag, and by the looks of things Rin is going easy on him. There's not a doubt in my mind she can run much faster than that.

"Hello?" a familiar voice answers through my phone after the third ring, breaking my attention away from the field.

"Hey Luc," I reply. "Remember me?"

"Miku," I can hear the smile in Luc's voice, "Cul told me you moved here. How's it been?"

"Can't say just yet," I say as I watch Nero chase after Rin again. The two of them look like oversized children, but at the same time it's kind of cute to watch. "Could we meet up sometime this week and talk? I kind of need a brother right now."

Luc is silent, probably trying to interpret the meaning to my request. "What's wrong?" he asks.

"Someone . . . ," I trail off, terrified to hear how Luc's going to react. "I got careless," I say. "Someone knows."

I jump with how loudly Luc swears. Even with my vague statement Luc knows exactly what I meant. "How bad is it?" Luc asks.

"Not too bad, I hope," I answer. "I've been given the impression he's not all that average."

"Did he tell anyone?"

"His friend, apparently." Luc swears again. "I know I made a terrible mistake, but I need someone to talk to and get advice from. My parents are out of the question, and after getting on to Cul for her problem I can't tell her I was so reckless. Please, you're the only person I can turn to."

For the longest moment the only thing I hear is the sound of my heart pounding in my ears. "I have morning classes on Wednesday, but the rest of the day I'm free," Luc finally says. "After school you can meet me at the pizza parlor by the movie store."

Today's Monday, meaning I have two days to keep everything to myself before I can talk about it to someone. Better than nothing, I suppose. "Wednesday is perfect," I respond.

"See you then," Luc says.

"See you," I reply before hanging up my phone. I look again at the blonde duo having a ball on the empty field. Nero is panting and struggling to tag Rin, but said girl hasn't so much as broken a sweat. Where does she get all that energy?

I'm about to approach them when a loud noise makes me jump out of my skin. On the other side of the fence is a large golden retriever, its large brown eyes staring at me as it wags its tail at amazing speed. It barks again, causing me to flinch.

"A dog!" Rin exclaims with joy as she runs to where I am and kneels by the fence. She sticks her fingers through the diamond pattern wire and laughs as the dog licks her fingers. "What are you doing here, little guy?"

Little? There's nothing little about that thing! I slowly keep putting one foot behind the other in attempt to get away from the creature.

"Is something wrong, Miku?" Nero asks when he finally gets to where Rin and I are and notices me backing away. Seeing how I'm looking at the dog, Nero concludes without a doubt in his mind, "You're scared of dogs."

Slowly nodding, I reply, "When I was six a German shepherd attacked me and bit the back of my leg. The bite mark required nineteen stitches. I've hated dogs, especially big ones, ever since."

Rin looks at me in a way that suggests I just flat out insulted her and not stated my dislike towards canine kind. I'm not surprised. All dog lovers always give me such a look whenever I state I hate dogs, but Rin seems to be taking the fact a bit more personally.

"Want to go inside?" Nero suggests. I nod as an answer.

We begin to walk away, and, after casting one last look at the dog, Rin follows us. "So you hate all dogs?" she asks. "Does . . . Does this include wolves as well?"

"Wolves, coyotes, dingos - I don't like any of them," I say. Rin purses her lips together and begins marching ahead of us. "Did I say something wrong?" I ask Nero.

"Rin loves animals, especially dogs," Nero answers. "She'll be all right. It's not the first time she's been told that someone hates dogs."

I don't respond. The bell then rings, signaling students to move on to their next class. As I don't share any classes with Rin this will probably be the last time I see her today. Not wanting the day to end on a sour note between us, I call after her. "Hey Rin!" When I have her attention I shout, "Save me a seat in homeroom tomorrow?"

It takes her a few seconds, but it's to my relief Rin smiles and replies, "Sure! See you later!"

"See ya!" I wave before the blonde takes off.

"How can she play a round of tag and still have so much energy?" Nero wonders aloud.

"I'd like to know the same," I mumble. One of my next classes is shared with that flirt Len, but I don't know which one. Guess I'm going to find out soon.

Oh joy.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: If you got that George of the Jungle reference at the beginning of this chapter I will love you forever. :P <strong>

**Okay, I've been hogging the spotlight long enough now. It's Len's time to shine! XD**

**-Ray (and Kate)**


	8. I am NOT a Womaniser

Chapter 08: I am NOT a Womaniser ~ Len

"I hate math," Piko pouts.

"Maths," I correct him.

"Math," he corrects back.

"Maths," I repeat.

"Len, we are in America so shut your pretty snobby mouth and suck it up that we say 'math' not 'maths'." Piko taps his pen against the desk.

"But maths sounds prettier! Actually, everything British sounds better," I reply haughtily. "British English is just overall prettier because it's the _original_. Then _you_ came and _butchered_ it."

"I don't know why you're accusing me," he says, throwing his pen at my head. "I didn't personally change it."

Since I duck in time his pen misses me and flies across the room. The teacher doesn't see, but everyone else does and they look at us before going back to whatever they were doing. Luckily the pen didn't hit anyone.

I frown at my friend. "I don't want to be pen kebab, thank you."

"You'll be fine, you know I have a crap throw," I say.

Mr Hiyama hears me complaining loudly and turns to look at the two of us. We both stare back quiet and unblinking. He narrows his eyes suspiciously but turns back to continue writing in the board, presumably a warm up exercise.

We're waiting for the lesson to start, only a couple of minutes to go. Piko shuffles awkwardly across the classroom, careful not to catch Mr Hiyama's attention, to pick up his pen and as I watch him I notice someone appear in the doorway to the classroom.

"Miku, it is?" The teacher asks as he looks up.

Miku nods. "That's me."

"I'm Mr Hiyama, your math teacher," he says in reply. "Feel free to sit at any of the spare desks. Everyone else is already here so you don't need to worry about taking someone else's seat."

Miku nods in reply and looks around the classroom, checking out all the empty seats. Her gaze falls on one in particular, but then she catches sight of who's sitting next to it and her eyes automatically narrow. I grin at her, but she decides to ignore me and looks around at the other spare seats. She looks at one of the seats a couple of rows in front of me. The black haired girl next to it looks up for a second but doesn't say anything, just stares back down at her desk.

Mew, the black haired girl is called. The school witch as the rumours say, though we have yet to clarify if she is in fact a real witch or not. She's smart, so if she is a witch I have no doubts she knows what we all are, especially since we (and I mean Rin specifically) tend to use the word 'Normie' a lot casually.

Miku looks at Mew, but Mew won't look up. If Miss Time Manipulator was expecting everyone to be jolly and kind to her she is pretty darn wrong. Mew is a rather antisocial chick, and hates talking to anyone. So Miku is gonna be in for a really boring maths lesson if she chooses to sit there.

Of course that's exactly what Miku does, sit next to the most boring girl in class. Got to cut her some slack, though, this is still her first day.

After having taken the register, Mr Hiyama turned to face us all. "All right, so I trust you all have your homework for today, we'll mark that first. Miku, just follow Mew's homework for the time being. I'm sure you'll catch up."

Since Mew is the only organised student in the class and already has her homework out on the table, she nudges it over slightly so Miku can see too. From the looks of it Miku tries smiling at the school reject, but she doesn't get a smile in return.

Everyone else in the class simultaneously starts routing through their bags to search for the homework. Piko pulls his out of his bag, already knowing he's gonna get full marks. He always does, and I'm generally near the top of the class. I can get one hundred percent sometimes, but that's with sheer luck and a phone call to my robot friend asking him for the answers to the question I'm stuck on. Piko looks at me, expecting me to pull my homework out, but I'm still searching.

"Mr Kagamine, is everything all right?" Mr Hiyama is hovering above me, staring down menacingly.

"Yes, Sir," I reply, and I grit my teeth.

"You do have your homework, don't you?"

"Yes I do, I put it in my bag this morning," I grumble, pulling everything out and scattering it over my desk.

Mr Hiyama doesn't look convinced as I start being more frantic with my search. Eventually I give up; I know when I'm defeated.

"You don't have it," Mr Hiyama says bitterly.

I shake my head.

"Come and see me after school." He turns and stalks away back to the front of the class. "You can do your homework then. At least you will remember the answers."

Again? He expects me to do ten three-part questions _again_? I hate maths.

I groan, aware everyone is staring at me and snickering. Even Miku is, and she's the worst at hiding it. Mew looks at Miku oddly then turns around to look at me to see if there is any joke she missed. I ignore them all and start putting everything back where it should be as a thought occurs.

Rin must have taken it from my bag. That would explain why she was grinning like a fool earlier on. Though when she did have time to take it, I have no idea, considering she was in the shower all morning.

With a sigh I just sit back, sulking for the rest of the lesson.

#

I spend almost an hour after school with Mr Hiyama, begrudgingly doing my homework again. He marks it in front of me too, but slowly, and he marks several questions wrong when I know they're right (I admit I had gotten some answers wrong to begin with, but the second time around I had to ace it since I remembered what Piko had put down and just recited his answers - turned out he got one hundred percent as per normal). He's just trying to get back at me. I don't say anything though and snatch my homework from him when he's done and leave the classroom, muttering to myself. I'm aware I'm his least favourite student. He's the only teacher that actually doesn't like me, but it's not my fault Rin keeps stealing my homework.

You can see how much he hates me by how he addresses me by my surname but everyone else by their first. Not even Rin is hated as much by one of her teachers, and this is Rin we're talking about.

I decide I hate Rin. I decide I hate Miku too. In fact I just feel like hating everyone at this point in time.

Grimly I walk out of the class and slink down the school corridor. I find Piko sitting at my locker, most likely playing Temple Run on his phone.

"Thanks for waiting," I mutter glumly.

"No problem," he says as he puts his phone in sleep mode and climbs to his feet. "How was detention?"

"Crap," I mutter. "Rin's got hell to pay."

"I bet Miku took part in it too," Piko said idly. "You saw how she was snickering."

I grunt at I close my locker. "Let's just go home."

#

"I'm back!" I call out, as I open the door. Nobody replies so Piko and I just slip inside. Sweet Ann and Big Al won't be back for about another hour, so we have the house to ourselves for a while. I think about finding Rin and throttling her but there's no point in starting an argument. I'll just have to seek revenge another day.

"So I hear you got detention," Oliver says as Piko and I trail into the sitting room. He's lying down on the sofa, a bowl of popcorn in his hands, staring at the TV. He grunts and picks up the remote and switches channels. "I don't like American TV. It's bollocks."

"Language," I say as Piko and I collapse on the sofa next to him. He pulls his feet away to give us a little more room.

"Bollocks?" Piko questions.

"Hmm." I simply give a nod of my head as a reply before looking at my younger cousin. "Fix your bandages."

"No."

I purse my lips. "Give me the remote, it's our turn to watch TV."

"You snooze, you lose. Your fault for getting detention."

For a kid who's such an angel at school he can be a real brat at home.

"No, it's Rin's fault, she stole my homework." I narrow my eyes at no one in particular.

"Oh yeah," Oliver replies with a yawn. "She mentioned something about that."

I leap up from the sofa. "She said that? She actually admitted it?"

"Of course she did. She sounded really proud about it, too."

I swivel around and about to march out the room, ready to strangle my older twin, when we hear the door open again.

"We're home!" I hear Sweet Ann call, back earlier than usual. She and Big Al poke their heads around the living room doorway and look at me oddly.

"Are you all right, Len?" Big Al asks. "You look pretty angry."

"I'm going to kill Rin," I say blandly.

"Oh that's fine, just don't get blood and fur on the carpet," Sweet Ann chortles as she kicks off her shoes and comes inside. "Hello, Piko."

"Hello," Piko replies with a wave.

She probably doesn't realise I'm serious, serious about hurting Rin anyway. A little dog fight isn't bad, and is in fact a brilliant way to blow some steam.

"Oliver, darling, fix your bandage, will you? We can see your scars," Sweet Ann says as she sits down next to him and ruffles his hair.

"Of course," he says sweetly and he starts to put them back in place. I can tell my face looks annoyed.

"So what's Rin done this time?" Big Al asks once he's out his and Sweet Ann's shoes away.

"Steal my homework and land me in detention."

"Oh, you'll live."

I groan to myself. My aunt and uncle are so caring towards me.

Suddenly the large bundle of energy that is my twin sister comes tumbling down the stairs, skidding to a halt in the sitting room.

"Welcome home!" She sings as she looks at Big Al and Sweet Ann. They both wave in response.

"Don't steal your brother's homework," Big Al says as he sits down next to his wife.

"I didn't, he lies," Rin says with a giggle. We all know by that giggle she did in fact steal my homework, but there's no way on Earth we can get her to confess to her crime.

"Why are you so excited today, then?" Sweet Ann asks before turning to her husband. "Darling, will you get me a coffee."

"Sure," he says and he gives her a quick kiss before disappearing from the room.

"Well, I met someone today," Rin says with yet another giggle.

Sweet Ann raises her eyebrows as she takes off the choker from around her neck. "I hope it's not a boy."

Rin snorts and waves her hands through the air. "A boy? Nah, I met a girl today."

"I didn't know you swung that way, darling," Sweet Ann chuckles slightly, knowing full well that wasn't what Rin meant.

Even if she can be an idiot the majority of the time Rin knows our aunt is only teasing. Still she says, "You got it wrong. Piko's the Nancy boy, not me."

"And proud," Piko replies idly.

"Hey, only I'm allowed to call him Nancy boy," I say but Rin holds a hand up to me as if to tell me to be quiet.

"So, are you going to tell us about this girl of yours?" Big Al asks as he comes back into the room with a coffee.

Rin grins. "She's new. She's called Miku and she's SO awesome. She helped me with my maths homework and she says we're already friends and she's just too nice!"

"Calm down, darling," Sweet Ann says as she takes the coffee Big Al hands her. "So you made a new friend, that's wonderful!"

Rin nods enthusiastically. "And she likes how I'm energetic, unlike someone I know."

I know this comment is aimed at me but I decide it's best to keep my mouth shut.

"Norm or Monster?" Big Al asks, a stereotypical question to ask when inquiring about a Monster's new companion.

"Norm, as far as I'm aware," she replies, and the why she frowns implies she's trying to think of any clues that may have been dropped to prove otherwise.

I can't help but cough slightly, knowing full well Miku is far from being a Norm.

"Is there something you'd like to share?" Sweet Ann asks as she casts her attention towards me.

"She's a witch," I mutter as I cross my arms.

"A witch, are you sure?" Oliver asks. For some reason he's now sitting upside down on the sofa.

"He's speaking metaphorically, of course," Piko says. "She's not a witch."

"And are you sure about that?" Oliver asks.

"Sit up, the blood will rush to your head," Sweet Ann says as she taps her son's knee.

"We're not sure about anything, of course," Piko replies, and I wonder how he's managed to become such a good actor despite never taking acting lessons. Of course we're sure about something. Miku's a Time Manipulator. Well, I'm sure at least. Piko's just naïvely believing me. We'll naïvely believe one another to our graves, for sure.

"Then why call her a witch?" Oliver asks as he moves around so he's sitting up properly.

"Like I said, he's speaking metaphorically," Piko says. "It's because he hates her, or loves to hate her would probably be the correct term to use, since he hates her but loves her too, and he's already decided this even though he hasn't known her for a full twenty four hours."

"Oh," Rin groans as she holds a hand to her head. "Trying to figure out this love-hate relationship is making my head hurt."

"Loves her?" Sweet Ann asks with a smirk.

I can't help but smirk back. "She can be pretty damn cynical, but she's also seriously hot."

Rin pulls a face at my last sentence.

Big Al just snorts. "You need to be less of a flirt, Len. You shouldn't always fall for someone for their looks."

"If she had a dull personality I wouldn't give two ticks about her," I say. "But she's got a pretty great, if somewhat cynical and snarky personality."

"He's attracted to her because she hates him," Piko explains.

Guess I couldn't put it better myself.

Big Al continues to chuckle. "Girls like that are hard to win over, trust me, I've tried."

Sweet Ann hits him lightly because she knows for a fact he's not talking about her.

"You may have picked up some skills from your uncle," she then says to me. "But you're not quite the womaniser he is, or once was shall I say because if I catch him even looking at another woman he'll have more stitches than the ones in his head."

Even if we call my aunt 'sweet' she too can be cynical when she wishes.

"I am not a womaniser," I retort.

"That's why I said 'not quite'," she tells me.

"'Not quite' implies 'you are a little bit', and I'm not even a smidgeon," I say. "I'm a flirt, as are half the guys I know, Gakupo, Kaito, Nero-"

"Nero isn't a flirt," Rin says with a frown. Bless her, she looks confused.

"You have no idea," I mutter before I continue. "That doesn't mean they're womanisers."

"Okay, okay, I retract my statement," Sweet Ann says, putting her coffee mug down so she can hold her hands up in mock surrender. "You're not a womaniser."

I nod my head. "Apology accepted."

"Anyway, can we just not talk about Len wooing my brand new friend," Rin suddenly blurts. "I can tell you one thing, Len isn't going to woo her. She's my friend so he can't have her."

"Geez, you don't have to get so defensive," I mutter. "I'm not that interested."

"It only lasts about a week," Piko says.

"Anyway, if she is just a Normie, be careful around her, remember," Big Al says, switching the topic to a more serious note.

"You don't have to give us a lecture," I say dryly.

"I'm not," he says with a wave of her hand. "Just make sure you trust her before you show her your true selves."

"That won't be happening anytime soon," Rin mutters and she casts her eyes down at the floor. She looks quite upset about something, though I'm not entirely sure what.

"Anyway, go away, I want to watch some TV," Big Al says, slouching back on the sofa.

"And no dog fights," Sweet Ann adds.

"Wouldn't dream of it," Rin and I both say just before we leave the room, quickly followed by Piko and Oliver.

#

Kaito comes in late to the club, and we can only assume it's because he's been stalking Meiko again. There's no hints to if this is true or not, especially not the fact his cheeks are red from clearly being in the sun a little too long.

"What's up?" he asks as he flicks the lid of his bottle open.

He seems slightly confused by the fact we're all sat around one table talking with one another. Generally we just flit around and talk to different people, but this time we all seem to be holding a meeting. Big Al and Sweet Ann have taken this opportunity to catch up on some marking of theirs.

"We're talking about Miku, the new girl," Gumi announces. She and Sonika shuffle along to make space for him at the table. He sits down between Gumi and me, taking a sip from his bottle as he does so.

"Uh, you might wanna wipe that a bit," Miki says, tapping the corner of her mouth in an indication of where she means.

Kaito wipes his mouth with the back of his hand, only successfully smearing blood across his face. With an eye roll Yukari hands him a wipe (she always has some on her).

"New girl?" Kaito asks once his face is clean. "I've overheard Meiko and Luka mentioning something about one."

Only because he stalks Meiko.

"I want to meet her," Oliver complains, his head in his hands. "Rin and Len have been talking non-stop about her over the last couple of days."

"Well I'm sorry I'm proud to have a friend," Rin says as I give her a bizarre look.

"I haven't been talking about her," I say. "And it's only three days, stop exaggerating."

"Exaggerating? Surely he's under-exaggerating," Piko says as he spins his tail around. "A couple of days would mean two; why do you think they call lovers a couple? There's only two of them."

"Len's just bein' a bit of an idiot cos 'e's too busy dreamin' about bein' a couple with 'er," Sonika slurs. It seems like she's drunk, but we know she's just tired from pulling two all-nighters trying to catch up on Game of Thrones. She claims she's behind since because she's British she's been watching British shows and not American ones. I somewhat agree, but some shows are great, like Game of Thrones (but that might have to do with the naked ladies).

"So tell me about this new girl then," Kaito says.

"Len's romantically in love with her, Rin's platonically in love with her, everyone else has various feelings of love towards her. We're all just in love with her," Gumi says.

"Apart from you cos you love me," Sonika says with a yawn.

"Sounds interesting," Kaito muses. "Normie?"

"I think so," Miki says, though Miki's a bit of an idiot so she wouldn't caught on to Miku being a Time Manipulator even if Miku crashed into her while slowing time.

"I want to meet her, someone drag me around one lunch time," Yukari says, stroking her rabbit ears. "I can't spend all my time with Ia after all."

"Be glad you can meet her," Lapis grumbles. "I have to hide under Iroha's hat all the time. If she's a Normie I'll never meet her."

"I'm a Normie," Sonika reminds us.

"And my hat isn't that bad," Iroha says, clutching said hat in her hands.

Lapis just mumbles as she flies up to sit on her neko-girl friend's head.

"I reckon we should test out if she's a Normie or not if she's this interesting," Kaito muses.

Piko and I just look at each other and smile. We don't need to test it out, we already know the answer.

**~Author's Notes~**

**Hey hey, I remembered to update on time! Whoohoo! So I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Just more US vs UK stuff, and it's actually revealed Ann and Al are the twins aunt and uncle, not that it was a secret, it just wasn't mentioned before. It was good to see all the guesses for what Rin and Len are, but of course, we ain't telling you if you're right!**

**~Kate (and Raye)**


	9. Today Must be

Chapter 9: Today Must be "Give Miku a Heart Attack" Day ~ Miku

I close my eyes and lean on my chair to the point it's standing only on its back legs. Having waken up much too early this morning after having gone to bed around three, I arrive to school early and am the first person to homeroom. I place my ear buds in my ears and begin playing 2NE1. The song, I Love You, puts a smile on my face as I recall the time I got into K-pop.

_"Why are you listening to that?" Cul had asked me the time she was hanging out with me in my old home and I began playing the song. "You can't even understand it."_

_"Yes I can," I argued with a frown. "Listen." Then the lines "I love you, I love you" begun to play._

_"English parts don't count," Cul said as she shook her head._

_"You just don't have an open mind like I do," I replied before changing the song to something by Big Time Rush._

Sighing, I let my memories of Cul lead me to memories of her brother Luc. Specifically the memory of last Wednesday after school.

_"Luc!" I exclaimed like a child at the sight of him. Unable to restrain myself, I ran up to him and wrapped my arms around him as if I was afraid he would disappear if I let go. "I missed you so much," I mumbled into his shoulder. We may not be related, but Luc is my big brother in every other way._

_"Missed you too, Miks," Luc responded as he pat me on the head, calling me by that ridiculous nickname I don't like but let him use anyway._

_We spent most of our time together asking about each other's wellbeing, he asked about Cul, and I asked about his girlfriend. Well, ex-girlfriend as I found out from his answer._

_"She's a Norm, Luc," I said as I bit into my nearly finished pepperoni and sausage pizza. "It's only natural that she would want to be with a Norm like her, not a . . . dragon."_

_"Even though she knows of the existence of Monsters," Luc sighed into his hands, "she still believed there was no way the two of us can work out."_

_"You'll find someone," I insisted, immediately feeling shame for how empty the comment came across._

_No longer wanting to discuss his love life, Luc meets me in the eyes and says, "Tell me about the person who saw you. What exactly happened?"_

_"I was late for school," I began, playing with the straw in my drink as I shamefully avoided eye contact, "so I slowed down time in order to not be later than I already was. It was in the school halls that it happened. My shoe came untied, and I tripped over my own shoelaces and bumped into this blond guy. I slowed time for him as well, and he noticed. He only saw me for half a second, and he still noticed me."_

_I didn't look at Luc as he thought what I said through. "How do you know he noticed you?" he asked._

_"The person with the boy," I began to answer, "his best friend, called me a TM at lunch that same day. I don't have to be a part of their circle to know that 'TM' is short for 'Time Manipulator.'"_

_"And you're certain this boy is a Monster?"_

_"Positive. He has a twin sister - who is blissfully ignorant of what I am - who made a slip up and called one of her friends a 'Normie.' I know, not much evidence to go on, but it's all I have."_

_"Do you trust this guy is keeping what you are a secret?" Luc then asked._

_With a shrug I answered, "No one has been coming up to me and calling me out for being different, so perhaps this guy really is trustworthy." Not that I wanted to admit I trust Len, but so far he's been proving himself worthy. It almost makes me feel guilty for being so unkind to him._

_Almost. Just because he knows how to keep his mouth shut doesn't change the fact that he's a cocky flirt who can't be bothered to leave me the hell alone._

_Drumming his fingers on the table, Luc then said, "I know you must have a lot of homework to do, so how about we met up here again next Saturday and discuss things further? I'm sorry it can't be sooner, but I have a job at the grocery store and I can't afford to lose it by asking to switch shifts."_

_I didn't want to leave. I wanted to stay with the only brother I've ever had. However, I knew he was right. I had a lot of homework, and not a lot of time to do it. Besides, since recent experiences have given me away I need to stop slowing time. I got lucky with Len, but I don't plan on pushing that luck any further._

_"Any advice you can give me?" I whispered._

_"Keep up whatever it is you're doing," Luc responded. "We will talk about this more later. Think you can manage to not screw anything up until then?"_

_"I'll try," I promised._

_I'm still trying,_ I sigh to myself as I come out of the memory. As a form of self-punishment, I won't be slowing time until this whole thing blows over. I have amazing control that way, but that doesn't promise against my slowing time when I get anxious, surprised, or scared. Thankfully such episodes are rare.

I allow my thoughts to slip away as I relax, the music taking over my mind. I am at ease. All is calm.

Until an ear bud is yanked out of my right ear and I hear, extremely loud but perfectly clear, "HEY MIKU!"

"WAAHHH!" I scream as I lose balance on my chair, a dangerous thing since I was still tilting the chair on its back legs. I fall back and slam my head on the shiny floor. Pain spreads over my skull as I feel a sharp stab in my eyes, leaving me blind. Ow.

"Oh my God, Miku!" Rin exclaims, and I can sense her kneeling next to me. "I'm so sorry! Are you okay?"

My sight returns to me, the worst of the pain passing. The first thing I see is Rin looking down on me, the worry evident in her furrowed brows and parted lips. "Don't _ever_ do that again," I tell her. We may have only known each other for a few days, but Rin seems to know me well enough to know that what I said translates to "I'm all right, now don't _ever_ do that again."

"I'm so sorry," she repeats, her tone breaking and shiny eyes blinking. Tears are threatening to spill from her cerulean orbs. For some reason Rin isn't her usual hyper self. She seems . . . upset.

"Hey," I smile as I reach out and ruffle her unkempt hair, "don't be sad. I'm okay."

Rin blinks again, but this time in surprise. "You're not mad at me?" she asks in such a way I'm certain she believed I was going to yell at her.

"No," I answer, "but seriously don't do that again."

"You have my word," Rin promises as she stands and help me to my feet. "But are you sure you're okay?" she asks. "You feel really fast."

It's my turn to blink. "'Really fast'?" I question.

"Yeah," Rin nods. "You were sitting one second, and before I could blink you're lying flat on your back. It was almost like the fall didn't happen. You were upright and then . . . you were not."

My appearance may not falter, but I know my heart skipped a beat. So much for not manipulating time. I must have unintentionally slowed time when Rin scared me, making the fall seem to her eyes much faster than it really was.

"Well," I casually shrug with my slow answer, "objects with more mass fall faster than objects with less. Perhaps the reason I fell so quickly is because my body has more mass than I thought."

For a solid moment I'm scared that Rin doesn't believe me. Then a mischievous grin spreads across her face. "Fat mass," she calls me, followed by giggling.

"Hey," I flick her on the forehead, "you and I are the same height." The statement is true. As the both of us stand next to each other anyone can tell that we possess the same height and nearly the same body type.

"But you're bustier than I am," Rin points out as she takes her seat, seemingly not caring that she's practically flat, "so you are made up of more mass than I am."

"Can't argue that," I admit as I, too, take a seat. It is then I realize that only she and I occupy the room - which is pretty bad because the first thing I should have done after Rin told me I fell really fast was check to see who else saw. Thankfully she's my only witness, but that doesn't stop me from wondering why she's the only one here.

After I ask Rin why she's so early, she answers, "Weeelllll," and the way she drags out that one word with a high pitched tone is all I need to know what to expect. "This morning, while we were eating breakfast, Len left the table to get his backpack since he left it upstairs. While he was gone I got into an argument with Oliver," she seems to have forgotten that I don't know who Oliver is, but I don't interrupt to ask, "and during said argument I accidentally spilled a glass of orange juice on the English paper Len spent all night writing. Knowing I ruined his big paper I fled the scene before he see what happened and ran the whole way here."

That explains why Rin's not her usual burst of energy, she must have spent a good deal of it on her run. Her haste to leave must also be the reason her hair is unbrushed, she's wearing Len's hoodie instead of her own - and I know it's Len's because he was wearing it yesterday, and her shoes are a mismatched pair of a gray sneaker on the right foot while the left styles a hot pink converse. The event must also be why she looked like she was about to cry when she scared me. She already put herself on Len's bad side, and I don't think angering another person before lunch would be Rin's idea of a great start for the day. Only . . .

"Why would ruining Len's homework upset you?" I ask. "You had no problem stealing his math homework last Monday and landing him in detention."

Knowing that I'm right, Rin gives in and adds, "During my argument with Oliver, he said . . . ," Rin trails off. Taking a shaky breath, Rin tries again, "He said th-that it's no wonder Len finds me annoying and secretly hates me. I'm always getting Len in trouble and being a bother so it's not like there's any reason to doubt the idea. Then Oliver s-said that Len wi-wishes he didn't have me as a twin sister. When I slammed my hands on the table to claim that isn't true, I also knocked over all three glasses of juice and ruined Len's assignment." Wiping her eyes before any tears threaten to spill, Rin adds, "I know none of it's true. We may not see eye to eye on everything, and we fight all the time, but Len and I do love and care for each other."

"But why would Oliver say something like that?" I ask before remembering that asking such can be considered rude.

Rin thinks nothing of the question and answers, "He didn't like my telling him to not hang out with his friend Yuki after school today."

"Yuki? You mean the freshman girl with the black hair? The one Len and I have Psychology with?"

"That's her."

"I get the feeling you don't like her," I voice.

"Not that," Rin purses her lips, trying to find the right way to phrase the statement. "I don't trust her. Something about that kid gives me bad vibes."

Personally I think Yuki is the sweetest girl in the class, but I decide against telling Rin that. "This Oliver kid sounds like a brat," I say instead.

Chuckling, Rin replies, "Oliver can be a real git whenever he chooses, but I love him anyway. He just tends to be at his worse with me during this time of the month, that's why he said what he did."

"This time of the month"? Is Rin on her-

"Anyway," Rin stretches her arms out in front of her, "Len can be a real grouch, too, especially when he hasn't slept. Add my dousing his paper with orange juice and he's bound to be borderline homicidal."

"It's Len's fault for leaving his homework in harm's way," I say in hopes of making her feel better.

It seems to work. Rin smiles and replies, "I suppose you're right, but he's still going to kill me at lunch. Not that I blame him, I'm an awful sister."

"Nah," I say, "I think ruining homework is what a sibling is supposed to do." Not that I know from experience. I'm am only child.

Laughing, Rin replies, "Say what you will, but I'm still going off campus for lunch."

#

After homeroom Rin and I part ways and head to our separate classes. I make myself comfortable in my desk in Psychology before I lie my arms on the table and rest my head. I need a nap, and it's not even nine in the morning yet. Gosh, this is going to be a slow day.

I must have drifted off, because next thing I know I feel my shoulder being forcefully shaken. "Gah!" I scream as I stand to my feet, turn around, and slap my attacker.

Then I notice Nero staring at me wide eyed, his hands up in surrender. The side of his face where I slapped him turns red where my palm met his cheek. This isn't good. I'm being way too jumpy today.

"You move really fast. Are you secretly a ninja?" Nero calmly says, and I know I slowed time again. To make matters worse, Len is standing next to Nero, his eyebrow raised in a way that suggests he saw my lightning fast reflexes, too. Unlike with Rin, there's no way I can use being a fat mass as an explanation.

Crap.

I try to stop slowing time, and twice already I have accidentally manipulated it. Today is not my day.

"Glad I'm not the one who woke you," Len notes as he takes his seat next to me. Rin wasn't exaggerating when she said Len spent all night writing his now ruined paper. Poor guy looks as if he's ready to pass out and take a long nap on the concrete floor.

"Sorry Nero," I apologize as he and I both take our seats. The classroom is half full, but thankfully it appears nobody else saw how "quickly" I moved, though the look the green haired freshman is giving me is really unnerving.

"It's okay," Nero replies, a grin on his face. "Next time I'll use a yard stick." At least he's still maintaining his sense of humor. "By the way," he looks at Len and me, addressing us both, "I met Rin in the hallway on the way here. We have an idea to go see the new Taken movie this Saturday and want to know if you guys would be interested in coming. We already asked Miki and her sisters, and they said they'd love to go."

Len sneers. "I'm not interested in hanging out with Rin right now." Wow, he really is mad at her.

"You'll come around," Nero says, probably because he's used to Len being mad at Rin for constantly ruining his homework. To me, "What about you, Miku?"

"Can't," I say. "I'm going to be hanging out with my-" I cut myself off there. I was about to say "my brother", but since Luc isn't really my brother and I don't feel like explaining why I call the guy I'm not related to my sibling I choose a different word. "Friend. I'm going to be hanging out with my friend."

I see Len furrowing his brows at my hesitation, but Nero thinks nothing of it. "Bummer. Too bad you're missing out."

All I do to reply is shrug. It's not long after that class begins. Since she's not here, I assume Luka is out sick. About ten minutes into the lesson Len nudges a sheet of notebook paper my way. My stomach drops when I read the pretty penmanship.

_Nero may not be suspicious of you, but I'm not fooled. I know what you are._

I reply with the only words I can think of and pass the note back to Len. _Is that some kind of threat?_

When he passes me the sheet I see he replied with _No, but the whole school is going to find out if you keep screwing up like that._

I hate to admit it, but he's right. I pass the note to him without responding. He scribbles for a moment before giving it back. _What? No big "thank you for keeping my secret since I bloody suck at doing it myself"?_

As a reply I write "thank you" in all caps big enough to cover the rest of the paper. He writes on the back and gives me the note. _Smart ass._

The comment makes me chuckle. At least he gets my humor. Remembering how upset Rin was this morning, I dig in my backpack and pull out my own English paper and a bottle of White Out. After covering my name on the assignment, I hand it to Len with the note._ I don't have to turn in my paper until tomorrow. Turn mine in as yours so you don't fail._

He replies with _Is_ _this_ _payment for keeping my mouth shut?_ I cast a glance his way, and based on the way he's smiling he's not serious. He only meant the question as a joke. I answer on the sheet before handing it back.

_No. I'm giving you this because I want you to forgive Rin for spilling orange juice on your paper. She's pretty upset and is convinced she's a horrible sister._

Len jots down his reply. He begins sliding it my way but comes to a halt when the teacher calls him out.

"Anything you two would like to share with the class?" the teacher asks, glaring at the note. He holds out a hand as a gesture for Len to hand him the notebook paper. No doubt the teacher wants to read our message aloud to the whole class.

Thinking fast, Len shoves the note into his mouth and begins chewing. "Nope," Len answers over the mouthful of paper. "Please continue teaching us." The way Len is looking at the teacher acts as a message. _Go ahead. Dare me to hand you the note now._

The teacher gives Len and me both a warning glare before returning his attention to the lesson. When the teacher's back is facing us, Len doubles over, picks up a book bag, and spits the chewed up and unreadable note into it.

"My tote bag," Nero whines as he looks at Len in horror. Between my bruising his face and Len's using his bag as a trash can, today is no more Nero's day than it is mine.

Wiping saliva off his chin, Len responds, "Now you have an excuse to buy a new one. You're welcome."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: I like K-pop, so Miku shall like K-pop. I love 2NE1, so Miku shall love 2NE1. Honestly, there's nothing like a commercial on T.V. playing I Am The Best in the background so you can announce to everyone in the room, "That's my song!" :P <strong>

**Anywho, you sort of get a look at Luc but not really so yeah. He's one of my favorite side characters so I can hardly wait for you guys to properly meet him. :)**

**Oh, and Happy Early Valentine's Day! :D**

**-Ray (and Kate)**


	10. A Formal Invitation

Chapter 10: A Formal Invitation ~ Len

It's after English now. The bell has rung for class and everyone's filed out of the classroom, ready to guzzle down all the food at the canteen. I'm the only one to remain, as my teacher demanded me to when I didn't hand her my homework.

In the end I didn't take Miku's essay. As much as I appreciate the offer, it's cheating to hand in someone else's work. I know, I know, I copy Piko's maths homework all the time, but that's different. I do most of it by myself. Handing in Miku's homework? No, just no.

One, I actually want to get a mark for my own work.

Two, the teacher will recognise it's not mine anyway; she knows my writing style.

So in the classroom it's only me and her. Nero had said he would have stayed if he hated promised his sister he would meet her at lunch. She gets grouchy if he doesn't keep his promises. He probably also still hates me for spitting in his tote bag. What kind of guy carries a tote bag anyway? Not even Piko has one.

Quickly I rummage through my bag before approaching the teacher's desk. She doesn't look at all impressed when I hand her my orange juice stained homework.

"What's this?" she asks.

"My essay," I tell her. "My sister spilt orange juice over it this morning. You can still read parts of it."

She takes the crumpled paper from me, then looks up at me suspiciously, trying to see if my excuse is true or not.

"I won't except it," she says, handing me the paper back.

I stare at her, jaw open slightly. "Seriously? Can't you just mark what you can read?"

That's when she glares at me. "Watch your tone. No, I won't mark what I can read. I want a full essay by the end of the week, understand?"

"Yes, miss," I grumble and I snatch the paper from her and leave the classroom before she can say anything else.

Outside Piko is leaning against the wall, waiting for me. I knew he would though, so it's not a surprise. What is a surprise is seeing that Miku is there with him.

She's be the last person I expected to see, especially since I'd vaguely threatened her about her powers. It wasn't like I was threatening her, I was warning her. I was being a respectable young man and trying not to get Monsters exposed, but I don't think she saw it that way.

"What are you doing here?" I ask as I stare as her.

"Someone's in a mood today," she remarks.

I stare at her some more then stuff my homework into my bag and storm off. Piko runs after me without saying a word, and eventually Miku falls into step beside me too.

"Seriously, you've been in a grump all day," she says. "Is it your time of the month too?"

I choke on the air as I take a step away from her. "My time of what?"

"Month," she says simply.

After I recover I narrow my eyes at her. "Guys don't have a 'time of the month'."

She shakes her head. "Actually they do. They have a similar hormonal cycle to girls, they just don't-"

When she doesn't finish her sentence Piko helpfully adds, "Bleed?"

"Hmm." She nods and looks away.

"The next time your 'time of the month' you're getting a Falcon Punch to the stomach," I mutter.

"A falcon what?" I don't think it's possible for anyone to look more confused.

"Falcon Punch, Captain Falcon?" I say. I'm proved wrong about not being able to look more confused, because she does. I throw my hands in the air and storm away down the corridor. "You need to play Nintendo more!"

"I play Pokémon," she calls after me.

"Pokémon isn't enough!" I swirl around to yell back. "Now hurry up, I'm hungry. Let's just go to the canteen already."

As I turn back around to stalk further ahead my miraculous enhanced hearing picks up Miku whispering to Piko, "Seriously, what's wrong with him?"

"He and Rin are odd children," Piko says, and I can practically see the innocent expression he's pulling. "At points Rin gets really emotional whilst he tends to get angry."

"So, pretty much his time of month."

Piko takes a pause before saying, "Pretty much. Just don't let him hear you say that."

If Piko wasn't a robot I would strangle him right now, where he stands. Maybe instead I'll get my revenge by deactivating his arm and not fixing it.

"I've already heard," I yell at them, not bothering to turn around. "I'm tired, honestly, I stayed up all night doing that bloody essay. I'm tired and hungry now let's go."

Miku runs to catch up with me, though I have a feeling she may have been 'assisted'.

"You're a fast runner," I tell her as Piko reaches us.

"Shut up," she says. "You could have always taken my homework."

"Thanks, but no thanks," I say, waving my hand dismissively at her. I don't need to explain the trifling details about my salvageable homework being turned down. "I have until the end of the week."

"So, are you going to forgive Rin?" Will she not stop pestering me?

"It's not any of your business if I forgive Rin or not," I say slowly.

"You know she's sorry, right?" Miku puts her hands on her hips and glares at me. "Plus she says that she accidentally knocked over the orange juice because of an argument she had with Oliver, your little brother?"

"Cousin," I correct her. "And?"

"Wait, you live with your cousin?" she asks.

"And my aunt and uncle, can't live with my mum if she's in Britian," I explain. I can tell Miku wants to ask more but I won't let her. "That doesn't matter though. Why should I care about Oliver?"

"Well, Oliver told her you hated her," Miku continues. "And she got upset about it and knocked over the orange juice."

I groan and run my hand through my hair. "If it makes you happy I'll strangle him too, but I'm still going to strangle her. I spent all night doing that homework. Not shut up and let's go and get some food."

"He gets even angrier when he's hungry," Piko says as we head off to the canteen.

#

It doesn't take too long to locate where everyone is sat. Piko, Miku and I quickly make our way over to join them. Sitting there are Rin, Miki, Iroha, Sonika and Gumi as per normal, 'The Lunch Time Crew' Rin refers to us all as, because we're the part of the club that always hangs out together. This lunch time though we're joined by Yukari.

She, Kaito and Oliver are the only three club members who don't generally spend lunch with us (excluding Lapis obviously). It might be something to do with the majority of us are Juniors. Kaito's a Senior, whilst Yukari's a Sophomore and Oliver's a Freshman, which would explain why those three don't generally hang around. Then again, Iroha is also a Freshman, but she gets intimidated easily so she generally sticks with Miki, though sometimes she'll hang around Oliver.

"I thought you didn't like Len," Miki says as she looks up.

"I don't," Miku says calmly, pulling out a seat between Miki and Rin. "It's not my fault he stalks me."

I have half a mind to quickly snatch her chair away from her and see her accidentally use her powers as she falls over, exposing her secret to the world, but that's probably pretty mean. Instead I just let her sit down.

"So, you must be Miku," Yukari says, standing up and leaning over the table so she can sake Miku's hand. Miku shakes it quickly then the two girls sit back down. "I've heard a lot about you from Miki and Iroha, I'm their sister, Yukari."

"Nice to meet you, Yukari," Miku says as she eyes the moon rabbit's hoodie. "I like your hoodie, where'd you get it?"

"Ebay," Yukari says as if it's obvious.

As Miku and Yukari introduce themselves to each other, I turn my attention to Rin.

My twin sister looks up at me then quickly away. It's easy to see she's cut up about ruining my homework, and she hasn't said a single word to me today, having been avoiding me the entire time.

Miku looks at me with an evil glare, and so I cough.

"Rin, may I talk to you for a second?"

Rin looks up. "What about?"

"Stuff, come on." I pull her up from her seat and drag her away before she can say anything else. When we are out of hearing range of the others I say, "Look, I still hate you for ruining my homework, but you don't have to ignore me, all right? I mean, I don't hate you, I'm just really annoyed at you."

"I know," she mutters.

I ruffle her hair as she looks down at the floor. "Don't look so sad, I still love you, you know?"

"I know..."

"I mean, I can't help what I say on my moon period, right?"

Rin snorts. "Right."

"But I'm still annoyed," I continue. "So to pay me back for ruining an essay I spent all night doing, you're gonna pay for all my food at the cinema, all right?"

Rin looks up at me hopefully. "You'll come see the film with us?"

I nod. "Only if you pay for my food, and I want the biggest bucket of popcorn you can afford."

She grins and hugs me. "Anything!"

I hug her back, and then we quickly run back to the table since I can hear my stomach rumbling. Upon returning I realise we've been joined by two others who aren't a part of The Lunch Time Crew. Kaito waves as Rin and I approach, and I see he's brought his best friend with him.

"Kaito, Gakupo," I say as I wave back. "Strange to see the two of you here."

Gakupo, a purple haired senior, grins. "Got to stop by and say hi sometimes."

Miku looks up at the two new comers. Kaito's face seems to light up.

"So this is the new girl you were talking about at the club last week," he says. "I'm Kaito, it's nice to meet you, Miku."

Miku seems somewhat flustered that everyone has already heard of her. "Nice to meet you too."

"I haven't heard of you, if it makes you feel better," Gakupo says with a grin, apparently picking up on Miku's uneasiness. "I'm not a part of their exclusive club, so I don't get told these things."

"Exclusive club?" Miku asks.

Rin claps her hands together, buzzing with excitement. She seems a lot happier now I somewhat apologised. "Everyone here at this table is a part of the same after school club, apart from Gakupo. We're only one member short, and that's our cousin, Oliver."

The rustle under Iroha's hat suggests Lapis is annoyed she wasn't included in the 'only member missing'. Miku doesn't notice as she's looking around the table at everyone. "What kinda club is it?"

"It's called The Monster Club," Rin announced with pride. Fortunately no Norm can deter by the name we are in fact Monsters, we just mumble something about learning about monsters and mythical creatures and people leave us alone.

"Can only join by invitation only," Piko says. "That's why there's so few of us."

The only reason it's invitation only is because we can't have any one randomly join.

"So if you're a part of a Monster Club, is that why you look like a vampire?" Miku asks Kaito..

He coughs before saying, "I am a vampire. Kind of. I have a skin condition which makes me really sensitive to light."

"It's why he never takes his sunglasses off," Gakupo says.

Miku nods, as if she understands. And she most likely does, to be fair. She's probably met another vampire, or at least heard of them. It's also easy to see that by 'Monster Club' we do actually mean a club full of Monsters.

"And it's ironic because he likes stalking Meiko, and she's a sun person through and through," Miki says.

"Shh," Kaito says, holding up a finger to his lips. "You're not supposed to say anything about my obsession with Meiko, it's supposed to be a secret."

Gakupo snorts. "It's a pretty well known secret."

"As if your obsession with Luka, may I add," I say.

Gakupo hangs his head in shame. "It will never work out between us."

Kaito pats him on the back. "At least she doesn't throw tennis balls at your head. That's why we're here, actually, because Meiko wouldn't stop throwing balls at me."

"Maybe you should stop staring at her?" Iroha suggests.

"Shh, you're too young to understand," is all he says in reply.

With that Kaito and Gakupo leave, heading off to see some of their other senior friends.

"I have to admit, you are all strange," Miku says.

The people around the table all laugh. That's only because they think she's a Norm and we're Monsters, so having her call us strange is quite hilarious. Piko and I just exchange a look, because we know she's wrong.

"You're just jealous you ain't a part of our club," Sonika, the only Norm there, says.

"You could always join us," I suggest.

A get a few alarmed looks as Miku raises her eyebrows at me. "I thought it was by invite only."

"Then I formally invite you to join," I say with a grin.

From our conversation earlier today she knows I know she's a Time Manipulator, and I know she knows that everyone sat around the table, with the exception of Sonika, are Monsters too, and she knows that I know she knows that.

An endless cycle of knowing.

So, since we both know she's a Monster, I'm a Monster, and everyone else is a Monster, I don't see why she would turn the invite down. I know everyone else is alarmed by it, but they don't know she's a Monster. As soon as she accepts the invitation can admits to everyone what she is then that's perfect.

So even though I expect her to say 'yes' she looks at me directly and says I'm a dead pan voice, "No."

Piko laughs at my distraught expression. "Looks like she turned you down."

"She doesn't know what she's missing," I mutter.

"I know full well what I'm missing," she says, which is perfectly true. "And I don't want to join a club with you in it."

Everyone laughs at me and I just groan. So much for gaining a new member.

**~Author's Notes~**

**I want to apologise for the late update, I've been really busy this week, but it's finally here! I also want to apologise for not responding to reviews lately, I've just been really busy and haven't had the time, but I will try hard to reply now (though over the weekend I won't have Internet so don't expect a reply soon!) Anyway, thanks for reading, guys! Who bets Miku will end up joining the club?**

**~Kate**


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